I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 186 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to establish a small business 
start-up tax credit for veterans creating businesses in underserved com-
munities. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 3, 2019 
Mr. LAWSON of Florida introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to establish 
a small business start-up tax credit for veterans creating 
businesses in underserved communities. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterans Jobs Oppor-
tunity Act’’. 
SEC. 2. VETERAN SMALL BUSINESS START-UP CREDIT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart D of part IV of sub-
chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 
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1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new 
section: 
‘‘SEC. 45T. VETERAN SMALL BUSINESS START-UP CREDIT. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of section 38, in 
the case of an applicable veteran-owned business which 
elects the application of this section, the veteran small 
business start-up credit determined under this section for 
any taxable year is an amount equal to 15 percent of so 
much of the qualified start-up expenditures of the tax-
payer as does not exceed $80,000. 
‘‘(b) APPLICABLE VETERAN-OWNED SMALL BUSI-
NESS.—For purposes of this section— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘applicable vet-
eran-owned small business’ means a small business 
owned and controlled by one or more veterans or 
spouses of veterans and the principal place of busi-
ness of which is in an underserved community. 
‘‘(2) OWNERSHIP
AND
CONTROL.—The term 
‘owned and controlled’ means— 
‘‘(A) management and operation of the 
daily business, and— 
‘‘(B)(i) in the case of a sole proprietorship, 
sole ownership, 
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‘‘(ii) in the case of a corporation, owner-
ship (by vote or value) of not less than 51 per-
cent of the stock in such corporation, or 
‘‘(iii) in the case of a partnership or joint 
venture, ownership of not less than 51 percent 
of the profits interests or capital interests in 
such partnership or joint venture. 
‘‘(3) SMALL BUSINESS.—The term ‘small busi-
ness’ means, with respect to any taxable year, any 
person engaged in a trade or business in the United 
States if— 
‘‘(A) the gross receipts of such person for 
the preceding taxable year did not exceed 
$5,000,000, or 
‘‘(B) in the case of a person to which sub-
paragraph (A) does not apply, such person em-
ployed not more than 100 full-time employees 
during the preceding taxable year. 
For purposes of subparagraph (B), an employee 
shall be considered full-time if such employee is em-
ployed at least 30 hours per week for 20 or more 
calendar weeks in the taxable year. 
‘‘(4) UNDERSERVED
COMMUNITY.—The term 
‘underserved community’ means any area located 
within— 
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