Comments on: Tax holiday: Next hot stimulus idea? Or big headache for you?

By: Judy

Judy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:55:53 +0000

I think ABW has the right idea.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:53:32 +0000

Lewis,

I understand your rationale and agree with your assessment of large comapines, but it seems abitrary and capricious to pick 50 employees. What’s magic about that number? Why not 60 or 70? How about or 10 or 20? That being said, I don’t think this bill has a chance of passing, which is good news for HR because it would be one more thing that we would have to monitor and manage.

By: Lewis

Lewis — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:59:27 +0000

I believe the rationale to give the tax break only to small businesses is because they employ 85% of the labor force. Thus small businesses drive our economy by investing in their businesses and hiring new employees as their businesses grow. While, bigger companies seem to prefer using foreign labor force [h1bs or outsourcing to other countries] when they want to expand market share or increase profits That being said, it does seem rather unfair for the relatively 15% or more who would not get a tax break.

By: Holly

Holly — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:27:55 +0000

I agree with you as well, Sherri. There must be other options available that would serve the purpose equally well if not better than tapping into the Social Security and Medicare funding.

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:39:40 +0000

I’m trying to figure out the rationale for only small companies. Don’t we all need the tax breaks?

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:50:17 +0000

I don’t understand the logic of the tax holiday applying to only those business with less than 50 employees. Aren’t employees who work for a company that employs more people just as deserving of a tax holiday?

By: Sue D

Sue D — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:30:23 +0000

I agree with ABW, but then the IRS would be responsible for billing that back to the Social Security system, if this is where the dollars are supposed to come from. It’s like taking a loan against your future Social Security payout.

I don’t know why we just couldn’t do that instead. I would certainly like the opportunity to make an informed decision to take a years worth of SS payments and deal with the consequences later if I knew what that consequence was going to be.

I agree with ABW that letting employers deal the mess in the systems is not necessary, but I agree with the govt, that SS is not a bad place to give people a boost.

By: Holly

Holly — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:52:57 +0000

50 or fewer employees?? What would that accomplish? Most employers have more than 50 employees and it wouldn’t be fair to give a tax break to a select few just because they happen to work for a smaller employer?? All taxpayers deserve to receive the same treatment regardless of the size of the company they work for. We all pay social security and medicare taxes so why should the employees of larger companies have to subsidize the tax breaks given to employees of smaller companies?

By: Sherri

Sherri — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:05:13 +0000

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Social Security and Medicare in at an emergency status right now? How can we get out of a hole by digging it deeper? There are an abundance of other options that make much more sense!

By: ABW

ABW — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:02:51 +0000

I understand wanting to get money into people’s hands faster but it would be easier just to issue an additional refund on each person’s tax return based on the actual amount of FICA/Medi paid during the year or maybe a tax rebate after the 2nd quarter 941’s are filed based on the FICA/Medi already paid. Of course there would be less amounts refunded if the IRS used the last 2 quarters of the year because those that reached the FICA threshold would no longer be paying that tax anyway.
Either one of these methods would make it a lot easier on the employers and reporting agencies.