Small Business Compliance and SBREFA

Attention

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) is currently transitioning to refresh content and enhance user experience.

 

Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (SBREFA)

  • In 1996, Congress passed the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, or SBREFA, in response to concerns expressed by the small business community that Federal regulations were too numerous, too complex and too expensive to implement. SBREFA was designed to give small businesses assistance in understanding and complying with regulations and more of a voice in the development of new regulations. Under SBREFA, the US Department of the Treasury and other Federal agencies must:
  • Consider the impact of their regulatory proposals on small entities, analyze effective alternatives that minimize small entity impacts, and make their analyses available for public comment.
  • Produce Small Entity Compliance Guides for some rules
  • Be responsive to small business inquiries about compliance with the agency's regulations
  • Have a penalty reduction policy for small businesses
  • In addition, SBREFA established 10 Small Business Regulatory Fairness Boards to receive comments from small businesses across the country about Federal compliance and enforcement issues and activities and report these findings annually to Congress. The legislation also gives small businesses expanded authority to recover attorney's fees and costs when a federal agency has been found to have acted excessively in enforcing Federal regulations.

If you are a small business and believe that you have been treated unfairly by Treasury, you may contact the SBA's Office of the National Ombudsman at: https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/oversight-advocacy/office-national-ombudsman Toll Free: (888) REG-FAIR (734-3247), E-mail: ombudsman@sba.gov, or mail: Office of the National Ombudsman, U.S. Small Business Administration,409 3rd Street, SW, MC2120, Washington, DC 20416-0005

NOTE: Filing a complaint with the SBA Ombudsman does not affect any obligation that you may have to comply with a Treasury citation or other enforcement action. Nor does it mean that you need not take other available legal steps to protect your interests.