Trumps Proposed Payroll Tax Elimination

Some of this increased business income would become an increase in the profits of corporations that pay the corporate income tax. Some would become an increase in income to pass-through businesses, whose profits are subject to the personal income tax paid by their owners. The resulting increase in corporate income taxes and personal income taxes would offset a portion of the cost of the payroll tax cut. In the Obama administration, the Social Security tax cut was made up, dollar for dollar, out of the federal Treasury.

That’s especially true given that it doesn’t serve the people who need the help the most, and that it carries the potential to knock a pillar out from under our most important and successful anti-poverty program. The credit had been https://bookkeeping-reviews.com/trump-proposes-eliminating-payroll-tax-through-the/ pegged to 6.2% of earned income and phased out for singles earning $95,000 or more and couples earning $190,000. Extending the credit to 2011, however, was nixed by the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

Employee Side Payroll Taxes

Because this proposal is a temporary (presumably one-year) measure, there is no reason to believe that employers would pass the benefits to workers. We, therefore, assume that the benefits of eliminating employer’s payroll taxes would be distributed the same as income from business assets (capital gains, dividends, business profits, etc.). Most economists, even conservative ones, do not rank a payroll tax cut anywhere close to the top of their list for best ways to support and stimulate the American economy as it struggles to climb out of the recession. They say it will cost a lot in lost tax revenues, while doing little to induce hiring — and excluding millions of unemployed workers from its benefits. A broad cut would heavily benefit people who still have jobs and are earning six-figure salaries, which is not the group that is most in need of federal support right now. And it would cross into the political danger zone around funding for a pair of safety net programs that remain highly popular with the American public.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Rocky Mengle was a Senior Tax Editor for Kiplinger from October 2018 to January 2023 with more than 20 years of experience covering federal and state tax developments. Before coming to Kiplinger, Rocky worked for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting, and Kleinrock Publishing, where he provided breaking news and guidance for CPAs, tax attorneys, and other tax professionals.

LAist to cut 21 positions, citing revenue shortfall

Making Work Pay suffered from the same flaw as the payroll tax credit — it was dripped into household budgets only paycheck by paycheck. For that reason, economists have found, its economic effect was muted, especially in comparison with lump-sum stimulus payments made in 2001 and 2008. A 2% cut in the payroll tax would come to $2,754 for everyone earning the taxable maximum of $137,700 or more. For a two-earner household at the maximum, the cut would come to an annual $5,508.

The president proposed slashing the tax for both employers and employees from 14.4 percent to zero. He also mentioned moves to aid small businesses and help hourly workers who might become sick. President Trump’s proposal to eliminate payroll taxes would deplete the Social Security retirement trust fund by 2023, and its disability insurance fund by the middle of next year, according to the Social Security Administration. https://bookkeeping-reviews.com/ The payroll tax is paid separately from federal income taxes and funds Social Security and Medicare. Employers and employees each pay 6.2 percent for Social Security and 1.45 percent for Medicare, and an additional 0.9 percent is levied on the highest earners. So, if you’re unemployed, retired, a stay-at-home parent, or don’t have a job for some other reason, then the payroll tax holiday won’t help you.

GOP moderates strike back after conservative revolt paralyzes House

Currently, the federal government imposes a 15.3 percent tax on workers’ wages, which is split evenly between employees and employers. Only earnings below $137,700 are subject to the part of the tax that supports Social Security; all earnings are subject to the part of the tax that funds Medicare. Mr. Trump has proposed suspending the entirety of the payroll tax through the end of the year. For most working people, the benefit of eliminating the employee side of the Social Security payroll tax starting on April 1 would be three-fourths of the benefits of eliminating the tax for the entire year. For people with earnings between $137,700 and $550,800, the benefit will be somewhere between 0 percent and 75 percent of a full year elimination of the tax. The president’s proposal would temporarily repeal payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare.

• «Therefore, many of our members will likely decline to implement deferral, choosing instead to continue to withhold and remit to the government the payroll taxes required by law,» they said in a letter published last week.
• They need an extra 500 bucks now,” to allay fears about lost jobs or wages, pay for medical tests, or ease the need to cut back spending right away.
• More recently, both sides of the aisle agreed to a payroll tax deferral for employers’ portion of Social Security taxes in the CARES Act that was passed this spring.
• “Trump’s payroll tax cut plan not only fails to help Americans struggling to get by right now, it would also completely decimate Social Security for the millions of Americans who rely on it,” Van Hollen said, vowing to fight the policy.
• «This is not an effective use of money to be borrowing from future generations so that households today can put more money in their savings accounts,» Greszler said.

It is possible that lawmakers could vote to do the same with the employee side in their next bill, but that would not be the true “cut” that Mr. Trump is interested in. The Medicare tax, also evenly split between employer and employee, is 2.9 percent of earned income with no maximum. «They are talking about specific industries that would be hurt the worst and to try and get first of all this payroll tax deduction,» said Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., who, like the president, is up for re-election this year. «So I think that’s at the top of my list as having immediate impact. My view is whatever you do, you want to roll it through the end of the year.» Another White House official added that different timelines were discussed. Trump is currently backing only those that would stretch through at least November or December, with some talk of expanding the cuts beyond 2020.

In remarks at a press conference Monday, Trump mentioned a payroll tax cut as a possible component of a stimulus plan to counteract a coronavirus-related economic slump. Payroll tax cuts, sometimes referred to as «payroll tax holidays,» have been used in the past. Most recently in 2011 and 2012, under President Barack Obama, the employee (and self-employed) shares of the payroll tax that would have gone to the Social Security Trust Fund was reduced from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. Trump has proposed implementing payroll tax deferrals from Sept.1 through Dec. 31 for employees whose bi-weekly wages are less than $4,000, on a pre-tax basis.

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more — straight to your e-mail. Nancy Altman, president of the progressive advocacy group Social Security Works, said Trump’s policies would wipe out the popular benefit. Moody’s Analytics estimated that a full pandemic, with 3 million to 4 million infections globally, might lead the U.S. economy to end 2020 about 1.5% smaller than it was at the end of 2019, ending a decade-long expansion. That move could balloon the U.S. budget deficit, which will top $1 trillion this year, despite the strong economy, the CBO estimates. «It would be really bold to try to make plans around something like this,» Elsasser said.

The elimination of the employee side of the Medicare tax starting on April 1 is more straightforward because there is no cap on the amount of earnings subject to this tax. We assume that everyone with earnings would receive three-fourths of the benefits they would receive from a full year elimination of the tax. The tax cut and general fund payback were billed originally as a one-time sleight-of-hand trick, but the tax cut ended up being extended twice before it ceased at the end of 2012. At a meeting with Congressional Republicans Tuesday, according to CNBC, Trump pitched rolling back the payroll tax to 0% through the end of this year, and possibly permanently. Either option would almost certainly die in the Democratic-controlled House.

But Mr. Trump remains enamored with the plan and is expected to continue lobbying for one, particularly if he wins a second term. The table below illustrates the different ways this proposal would affect revenue. That includes Trump, who has spoken openly about cutting “entitlements” such as Social Security and Medicare benefits. Using this income stream as a tool to pump stimulus into the economy threatens to erode Social Security’s position as a unique government program with its own revenue stream, a tax dedicated to its upkeep alone. Melding its own revenue with that of the federal government at large facilitates no one’s goals except those who want to see the edifice pulled down.

ITEP estimates that this would cost $843 billion and 65 percent of the benefits would go to the richest 20 percent of taxpayers, as illustrated in the table below. There’s also concerned about the impact on the Social Security trust fund, which is already dealing with financial issues. Since payroll taxes fund Social Security, many people are worried about the long-term effects of diverting money away from this social safety net for seniors. This results in increased income for the business owners, which results in increased income taxes that partly offset the revenue loss from eliminating payroll taxes. We assume that this windfall is distributed the way business assets generally are distributed. As a proxy for this, we model the benefits of the employer side payroll taxes as if they are distributed the way capital income (the income from business assets) is distributed.