Bill 251026, the LIFT Act, is a smart, targeted fix and a chance for the city to back the people who are betting on it.

Every week I talk to founders and small business owners who are building something new in Philadelphia or are helping keep our communities vibrant. A software startup. A food truck operator. A bodega owner in Kensington. All I hear is how they love this city. They want to grow their businesses here. And almost every one of them has the same question right now: why is Philadelphia taxing me before I’m even making money? Why do I get taxed on gross revenue when that is money I have to use to pay for operational expenses? This question is one hard to answer.

These questions aren’t complaint about Philadelphia. It’s a question about how we set our newest businesses up to succeed and it’s one Council is already working on.

Bill No. 251026, the LIFT Act, can be the answer. It would lift the Business Income and Receipts Tax, the BIRT, off sole proprietors and single-member LLCs, the exact legal structure most founders use before they have investors or employees. It is a targeted fix, and it deserves the broad support of everyone who wants Philadelphia to stay a place where people start things. I want to be clear about what this bill is, and what it isn’t.

It isn’t a blanket tax cut for large corporations. It’s a focused change for the smallest, earliest-stage operators, the freelancers, independent contractors, and one-person shops who took on the most personal risk and have the least margin to absorb a surprise bill. When the city ended the $100,000 BIRT exemption last year, tens of thousands of those operators got a tax bill for the first time. Many didn’t see it coming. The LIFT Act fixes that, cleanly, for the people who need the fix most.

It also isn’t a leap into the unknown. Most cities, Philadelphia compete with for founders and tech talent already do something similar, and in many cases something more generous. Austin doesn’t apply its franchise tax unless a business clears $2.65 million in revenue. Miami has no municipal business income tax at all. Boston charges a small state minimum. Atlanta waives its business occupation tax entirely for qualifying tech startups in their first three years. Philadelphia is the only major city on that list that charges both gross receipts tax and net income tax at the same time, with no floor. This affects businesses because many of them already have thin profit margins that do not give them enough cushions to pay for gross revenue when that income does not stay with the businesses, it goes into payroll, rent and other operational expenses needed for them to exist.

The hard work on this bill is already done. At the March 25 Committee of the Whole hearing, the Revenue Department’s Chief Counsel confirmed that the LIFT Act satisfies the Uniformity Clause. The Legislative Affairs fiscal note puts the annual cost at about $29.5 million. The legal path can be clear and the numbers are on record.

Just as important, the LIFT Act doesn’t compete with the work Council, and the Parker administration are already doing to support small businesses. The grant programs the city has committed to this cycle are real and valuable. The LIFT Act complements them, it reaches more people directly, without an application, without a deadline, and without anyone having to know it exists in order to benefit. The two approaches work together. I have been a proponent of these grants and sharing it with business owners I work with in this city.

There is a lot to like about this moment. LIFT Philly coalition has done patient, careful work building the case. A growing community of founders, small business owners, and neighborhood advocates is ready to engage.

What we’re asking for is for a hearing and a vote, in the Committee on Finance or before the Committee of the Whole. The bill is ready. The record is in place. The people it would help have been speaking up and sharing their concerns.

We will continue to work alongside the LIFT Philly coalition, Council offices, and the administration to get this across the finish line together.

Philadelphia has real strengths as a place to start a company talent, universities, and neighborhoods that Philly founders genuinely love. The LIFT Act would make meaningfully easier to choose Philadelphia at the moment that matters most: when a founder is deciding whether to stay. That is a future worth backing, and it is one we can build together.

*Amaury Abreu Leonardo is the Founder and Chairman of PHL Tech PAC, a Philadelphia-based political action committee supporting policies that strengthen the city’s technology and innovation economy. He can be reached at 717-341-2748 or through phltechpac.org.