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September 16, 2020

Trump’s ‘tax holiday’ has few takers in Connecticut

Photo | CNN U.S. President Trump earlier this year at a coronavirus response briefing.
By Ana Radelat, CT Mirror

It’s been two weeks since President Donald Trump offered employers a way to temporarily fatten their worker’s paychecks, but in Connecticut there have been few takers.

Using his executive authority, Trump has allowed the nation’s employers to defer the payment of certain payroll taxes from Sept. 1 through the end of the year.

But few employers in Connecticut have taken advantage of Trump’s “tax holiday,” an idea that Congress has also rejected, both in negotiations of previous stimulus bills and in on again, off again, unproductive talks over new legislation to respond to the pandemic.

Mark Soycher, human resources counsel for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said he has received dozens of phone calls from Connecticut employers who had questions about the program.

“I’ve not heard from any employer that they are participating in it,” Soycher said. “Once employers look at it, the see it as a short-term loan.”

Both workers and their employers must pay 6.2% of a worker’s salary in a tax that supports the Social Security trust fund.  Trump’s plan  would defer those payments for the rest of the year and make them due between Jan. 1 and April 30 — unless Congress acts to forgo the payback. Trump’s plan also defers a 2.9% payroll tax to support Medicare.

The deferral would only apply to workers with an annual salary of less than $104,000 and is voluntary – an employer does not have to agree to defer the taxes.

Soycher said most businesses determined it was not worth the trouble. It would require them to overhaul their payroll processes, which are largely automated. And if an employee leaves a company before he or she repays the deferred taxes, the employer “could be on the hook” for the repayment, Soycher said.

He also said many employers doubted Congress would act to “forgive” the requirement the deferred taxes be repaid next year.

“Congress has not been able to get its act together for more immediate needs,” he said, including agreement on a new stimulus bill.

Soycher  said Connecticut employers are also  concerned about the impact of the deferral on the Social Security trust fund, a concern shared by Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, who introduced a largely symbolic bill this month that would block the president from imposing another  halt to the collection of Social Security taxes.

“Americans are relying on Social Security more than ever during this pandemic,” Larson said. “They need to know that Social Security is secure and will be there for them.”

Opting out

General Dynamics, parent company of Electric Boat, one of the state’s largest employer, has followed  all other large defense contractors in declining to defer taxes.

“The program is optional, and General Dynamics opted out,” said Electric Boat spokeswoman Elizabeth Power.

The casino-owning Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, another large employer in the state, also declined to defer it’s employee’s payroll taxes, said tribal spokeswoman Lori Potter.

An analysis by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that a worker earning $75,000 a year would receive an additional $179 every two weeks through the rest of this year. But that same worker would owe about $1,610 next year. A worker making $35,000 would get about $83 more biweekly the rest of this year, and owe a little more than $750 next year.

Although private employers have shied away from adopting the deferral due to its complexity, the federal government is extending it to its employees, including military service members.

At Naval Submarine Base New London, which employs about 6,500 active service members and reservists and about 1,300 civilians, all those whose pay is less than $8,666.66 in any given month are having their taxes deferred.

So are about 2,000 employees of the Coast Guard Academy in New London who meet the pay threshold.

On Monday, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, which counts Larson as a member, tweeted their disapproval of deferring the payroll taxes of military personnel.

“Service members are being forced to take the President’s payroll tax deferral, despite the fact that many personnel may not be able to pay it back next year,” the lawmakers tweeted. “This is not how we treat our heroes.”

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