Home/Tag: payroll tax holiday

New Year, Similar Outlook

It’s a new year but the outlook for tax policy remains remarkably unchanged. The list of possible to-do items Congress might take on this year is pretty much the same and includes:

  • Extension of the Payroll Tax Holiday;
  • Extension of the Tax Extenders package that expired at the end of last year;
  • Extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that expire at the end of 2012; and
  • Tax reform.

You might view this list chronologically. If Congress were to take up each of these separately, the Payroll Tax Holiday is sure to be first, whereas any tax reform effort, while highly unlikely, is sure

(Read More)

2019-02-01T20:24:43+00:00January 23, 2012|

Yet Another “Millionaire Surtax” Introduced in the Senate

Yesterday, Senators Collins (R-ME) and McCaskill (D-MO) introduced legislation to extend the payroll tax holiday, among other things, and to pay for it with a mixture of tax hikes. Primary among the tax hikes is yet another modified version of the millionaire’s surtax. By our count, this is the fifth surtax considered in the Senate in the last three months.

In this case, the surtax is two percent and would apply to incomes exceeding $1 million, excluding small business income where the taxpayer works at the business. The goal of this exception is to avoid the charge that the surtax would

(Read More)

2019-02-01T20:24:44+00:00December 8, 2011|

What’s Next?

The Super Committee announced today that it will not produce any recommendations for Congress to act on next month. The markets are reacting badly, which surprises us. They should have seen this coming. Maybe they were hoping for some sort of signal that Congress can function and is prepared to deal with our ongoing fiscal crisis, but every signal we received for the past two months suggested the Committee was going to fall short.

Now that they have missed the mark, the question becomes, “What’s next?”

For the remainder of 2011, Congress needs to act on the tax provisions set to expire

(Read More)

2019-02-01T20:24:44+00:00November 21, 2011|