By KENT HOOVER
Washington Bureau Chief

Here's what small businesses can expect if Republicans win control of the House Nov. 2:

• The chances improve for extending all the Bush-era tax cuts, including lower rates for high-income Americans.

• Small pieces of health-care reform may be adjusted - such as easing new tax-reporting burdens imposed on businesses - but the law won't be repealed.

• Major legislation won't get far in the next Congress, but Republicans will use House committees to highlight problems with the Obama administration's regulatory agenda.

With a month to go until the congressional elections, many political analysts predict Republicans will win the 39 seats they need to win control of the House. Most analysts, however, think Democrats will retain control of the Senate but lose a handful of seats. And whatever happens in Congress, there still will be a Democrat in the White House.

"Obviously, the president is still the president, and he has the power of the veto pen," said Randy Johnson, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But the effects of a Republican takeover of the House could be felt as soon as Congress returns for a lame-duck session after the election.

Tax debate would change

The cuts in income tax rates enacted during President George W. Bush's administration expire at the end of this year. Congress has put off a decision on whether to extend some, all or none of these tax cuts until the lame-duck session.

President Barack Obama and most Democrats want to extend the tax cuts for everyone except households that make more than $250,000 a year. Republicans want all the tax cuts extended, contending that raising taxes on high earners would give the nation's most successful small-business owners less money to reinvest in their companies.

Because of the clear split between the parties on this issue, Republicans could claim a mandate for extending all the tax cuts if they win control of the House.

"It changes the dynamics of what the debate is about," said Dean Zerbe, national managing director for alliantgroup - a Houston-based provider of specialty tax services - and a former senior counsel for the Senate Finance Committee.

More Democrats will decide they "should be respectful of what the voters have said," Zerbe said. That could lead to a compromise that would extend the lower rates for high-income Americans for another year or two.

The Republicans' bargaining position in the lame-duck session would be strengthened if Democrats know the GOP is going to take over the House next year, said Bill Smith, managing director of the national accounting firm CBIZ MHM.

Both tax experts say Congress needs to decide the issue as soon as possible, so business owners can do their year-end tax planning.

"I think there's going to be mounting pressure from small businesses on both sides of the aisle to get something done in time to make decisions before year-end," Smith said.

"It's pretty shocking that they're playing around with the tax code like this," said Susan Eckerly, senior vice president of federal public policy for the National Federation of Independent Business.

Easing of 1099 burden likely

Republicans would try to use their House control to undercut the president on other issues, however.

House Republican leaders have vowed to "repeal and replace" health-care reform, but that won't happen as long as Obama is president and can use his veto power to protect his signature legislation. Instead, they will start with an issue that's achieved bipartisan support - relieving small businesses of a paperwork burden imposed by health-care reform.

As a way to raise revenue to help cover the bill's costs, Congress required all businesses, beginning in 2012, to file 1099 reforms with the Internal Revenue Service any time they spend more than $600 a year on goods and services with any other business. That's a significant expansion of the current 1099 requirement, and small businesses have urged Congress to repeal this provision.

"We would be very optimistic about getting this done sooner rather than later," said Giovanni Coratolo, vice president of small-business policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

While the chamber and NFIB opposed the health-care reform bill, some small-business organizations, such as Small Business Majority and the Main Street Alliance, supported it. Small Business Majority CEO John Arensmeyer fears that Republicans would try "to disrupt the smooth implementation of the law."

Most small businesses that he talks to are more interested in getting health-care reforms, such as new insurance exchanges, implemented quickly and effectively, than in trying to roll back the legislation, Arensmeyer said.

Legislation vs. regulation

During this Congress, Democrats pushed through the economic stimulus bill, health-care reform and financial regulatory reform. The chances of getting major legislation passed next Congress - a cap on carbon emissions, for example - would be sharply reduced if Republicans win the House.

"I don't see a lot of significant stuff happening," Eckerly said.

Lack of movement on a climate change bill would hurt many small businesses which would like to participate in the emerging clean-energy economy, Arensmeyer said.

"If Republicans are determined to not move forward on that front, I think that's not good for small business," he said.

Coratolo, however, said small businesses may benefit from a Congress that's less active legislatively.

"In some cases, not having legislation passed is better than having bad legislation passed," he said. "We would have a lot better economy today if that dynamic was in place last year."

House Republicans also would increase oversight of Obama administration regulatory policies.

Facing a Republican-controlled House, Obama would try to achieve more of his goals through regulation instead of legislation.

"We'll have to focus a lot more on that," Coratolo said.