'We're Being Used As Pawns': Some Federal Workers Wary Of Trump's Forced Deferral Of Payroll Taxes
Last edited Sat Sep 12, 2020, 07:07 AM - Edit history (1)
SEP 11, 1:43 PM
Were Being Used As Pawns: Some Federal Workers Are Wary Of Trumps Forced Deferral Of Payroll Taxes
Victoria Chamberlin
When President Donald Trump
signed an executive order last month giving employers the option to postpone payroll tax deductions from their employees paychecks until next year, he hailed it as a financial boost for millions of workers across the country.
But major companies like UPS, General Motors, Proctor and Gamble, and
many others have already said theyre opting out of the presidents plan, leaving the Trump administration to make the tax deferment a requirement for the one employer the president can control the federal government.
That means millions of federal employees and active-duty service members earning less than $104,000 a year including a significant chunk in the Washington region will see their paychecks get bigger starting next week. But the deductions will start back up again after the New Year, resulting in a 10-12% decrease in take home pay for those workers.
The fact that federal workers arent being given the chance to opt out rubs many the wrong way, with some saying they are being used as pawns in Trumps plan.
{snip}
Sep 9, 2020, 08:44am EDT
These 70 Employers Opted Out Of Trumps Payroll Tax Deferral, Did Yours?
Shahar Ziv Contributor
Personal Finance
I teach students and employees how to ace their personal finances.
{snip}
So far, the entities I found that publicly committed to the payroll tax deferment are mainly associated with the federal government itself. The four payroll processors used by federal agencies - operated by Defense, Agriculture, Interior Departments and the General Services Administration - announced that they are deferring payroll taxes. Roughly 60 percent of the 2.1 million executive-branch employees earn less than $100,000 a year, just below the cutoff set by Trumps order,
according to
The Washington Post. The result is that about 1.3 million federal workers are being forced to have their payroll taxes deferred to early 2021. More recently, we learned that all
active-duty military members would be forced to participate in the payroll tax deferment and that it was non-negotiable, giving them no ability to opt out.
{snip}