I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3345 
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 
JULY 20, 2017 
Mr. LAWSON of Florida (for himself, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. 
GONZALEZ of Texas, Mr. EVANS, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Ms. 
BARRAGA´N, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. 
BROWNLEY of California, Ms. SHEA-PORTER, Ms. HANABUSA, Mr. 
ESPAILLAT, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. ADAMS, Ms. LEE, Ms. GABBARD, Mr. 
PALLONE, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CORREA, Mr. THOMPSON of 
California, Mr. SOTO, and Mr. VEASEY) 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’’. 
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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 
1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new 
section: 
‘‘SEC. 45S. 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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‘‘(A) a HUBZone (as defined in section 
3(p) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
632(p))), 
‘‘(B) an empowerment zone, or enterprise 
community, designated under section 1391 (and 
without regard to whether or not such designa-
tion remains in effect), 
‘‘(C) an area of low income or moderate in-
come (as recognized by the Federal Financial 
Institutions Examination Council), or 
‘‘(D) a county with persistent poverty (as 
classified by the Economic Research Service of 
the Department of Agriculture). 
‘‘(5) VETERAN OR SPOUSE OF VETERAN.—The 
term ‘veteran or spouse of a veteran’ has the mean-
ing given such term by section 7(a)(31)(G)(iii) of 
the 
Small 
Business 
Act 
(15 
U.S.C. 
636(a)(31)(G)(iii)). 
‘‘(c) QUALIFIED START-UP EXPENDITURES.—For 
purposes of this section— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘qualified start- 
up expenditures’ means— 
‘‘(A) any start-up expenditures (as defined 
in section 195(c)), or 
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