Harris, Proposing a Tax Break, Makes a Play for Small-Business Owners

The plan, which Kamala Harris will announce on Wednesday in New Hampshire, would allow new companies to deduct up to $50,000 in start-up expenses, a campaign official said.

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Since taking over the top of the Democratic ticket, Kamala Harris’s campaign has subtly sought to take a friendlier approach to the business community.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday is set to propose expanding a tax break for start-ups, one of a series of policy ideas her campaign is rolling out this week aimed at helping entrepreneurs and small businesses.

The plan, which Ms. Harris will announce during a speech in New Hampshire, would allow new companies to deduct up to $50,000 in start-up expenses, a campaign official said. The move would increase by tenfold a $5,000 deduction that companies can now claim for expenses, like advertising and salaries, that they incurred before they started operating.

The goal of the proposed expansion is to help start 25 million small businesses if Ms. Harris is elected. In New Hampshire, she will also discuss creating a new fund to help small businesses expand, easing regulations and simplifying the taxes small businesses owe by creating a universally available deduction, the campaign official said, without offering additional details. The official revealed the plan on the condition of anonymity to freely share details of a policy proposal not yet released publicly.

Owners of so-called pass-through businesses, the structure for the vast majority of corporations in the United States, already enjoy access to a generous deduction that many progressives view as overwhelmingly benefiting the wealthy.

Since taking over the top of the Democratic ticket, Ms. Harris and her advisers have subtly sought to take a friendlier approach to the business community than President Biden did. Ms. Harris has closer relationships in Silicon Valley, which she once represented as a senator from California, and on Wall Street than Mr. Biden does. Her donors are encouraging her to emphasize the virtue of entrepreneurship and to abandon some of Mr. Biden’s most liberal ideas.

At the same time, Ms. Harris’s campaign has released four new advertisements since the party’s national convention that portray her as an ally of the middle class and former President Donald J. Trump as a friend to billionaires and big corporations. Voters express more trust in Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy than Ms. Harris, with many listing inflation as one of their top concerns heading into November.

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