From CBS Chicago:
Imagine this – you’re unemployed and you get a letter saying you owe thousands of dollars in back Social Security taxes.
That is the reality for some local U.S. Census managers. CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot spoke to one of them, who said the news was a shock. ...
In August of last year, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum allowing employers to defer certain workers’ Social Security taxes during the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
“I never received any documentation – any communication – from my former employer indicating that my payroll, Social Security taxes would be deferred while I was working,” the Census manager said. ...
So, the folks did not review their paychecks ever? Regardless of whether one agrees with the deferral of the taxes, folks still need to at least look at their paychecks, don't they? If they had done so, they would have known to put aside the money needed to cover the deferred taxes.
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ReplyDeleteDeferral of the withholding in late 2020 was a terrible idea. Obviously done with the hope of that it would win votes for Trump,. However almost nobody switched to voting for Trump just based upon that..
SSA workers who retire in 2021 are having problems because they are supposed to pay back by extra withholding over 26 two week pay periods. But for employees who quit before the 26 pay periods have passed, they have not yet paid back what they owe from 2020.
I agree with the first poster. Everything can’t be someone else’s fault all the time. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this world, the only one consistently looking out for me and my best interests, is ME!
ReplyDeleteThis is a little confusing. So are they talking about the 6.2 percent FICA tax where the employer pays the other 6.2 percent?
ReplyDeletePresumably the U.S. Census paid their share of the Social Security tax. So the deferment was a way to help them during the pandemic. But it was logical to assume they would be unemployed after the census was done. So they get more money to help during the pandemic but then have to cut a check.
Also how many were affected? The article was vague but how many are we talking about.
@4:43 pm If they would have set aside the deferred taxes amount that was not taken from their checks while the taxes were deferred, they would have no problem paying the deferred taxes now.
ReplyDeleteJust an election stunt by the former guy. Had he been re-elected, he said something about not collecting the back taxes or making the cut permanent. Of course, this would have hurt Social Security's funding leading to a Republican chorus about cutting benefits to deal with the "emergency" the former guy created. Same old, same old.
ReplyDeleteMost private firms, like ours, did not take the bait and opted to ignore the stunt. Government agencies did not have that option thus leading to stories like this posting.
@6:17 While government agencies did not have the option, the fact remains that folks could have and should have set aside the money for the deferred taxes. Sadly, too many folks probably just spent the extra money in the paychecks hoping that they would have not have to pay back the deferred taxes. And, that was a mistake.
ReplyDeleteI cannot speak for the Census Bureau or any other agency, but SSA definitely disseminated multiple messages to its employees making it abundantly clear it was following the script by not withholding, and that the employees would be responsible for repayment in 2021. I'm a little skeptical of the purported level of shock by this manager. Setting aside the money at the time would have created a repayment fund, of course, but that would have completely eliminated any possible stimulus effect just as if the withholding had occurred. I'm not saying the deferral was a great idea, but it did have good intentions (in addition to the political impetus).
ReplyDeleteThe headline on CBS is a bit deceptive. While it does say managers will have to pay back thousands, the guy interviewed only owes $600 apparently.
ReplyDeleteAs those above said, he should have set aside this money, knowing it would needed to be paid back. Emails were sent to SSA employees about what was going on and how they money would need to be refunded this year. I would assume the Census bureau did the same. If not, wouldn't you question a decrease in any deductions in your paycheck? If so, it would have been easy to find out what happened and to be prepared for it.
The payroll deferral was a really stupid thing.
ReplyDeleteHowever, these employees can't say they didn't know about it happening. Even if there was one somewhere who lived under a dumpster somewhere and didn't own a TV, the increase in paycheck if nothing else was noticeable (not huge, but noticeable).
They had every opportunity to question the increase in pay, or to increase tax withholdings so they'd get a bigger refund in order to be able to weather the shortfall while paying the money back.
I have even less sympathy for the ones retiring this year. Anyone with 1/2 a brain knows they will have a major income shortfall between retirement date and the date your final annuity is computed (the estimated annuities paid for months can run only 60-70% of what the final total will be).
Wow. Just wow. I worked as an enumerator for this last Census. It was a clusterf*ck. To say it was made of spit and duct tape would be granting it high praise. Having worked as field address verifier for the Census in 2019 I have something to judge by. 2019 was a solid, well established and pulled off endeavor. Leadership, guidance, resources.
ReplyDelete2020 enumeration was all seat of the pants at the local level. "Management" was primarily temp hires and I had a new supervisor every 3rd week. They had new supervisors even more often. No one answered the phones at the regional support offices. Questions outside of how to work the iPhone almost impossible. Payroll both times was a mess though. I was on the job 5 weeks each time before a paycheck came, and they were never calculated right. Having learned from 2019, I kept a ledger with time and miles and it was only at the end of my tour that the paycheck arrived as it should. That was also at the time they were desperate and removed the overtime barrier. Prior to that time, working 15 minutes into OT was automatic dismissal. Later, they were begging you to work OT and again, payroll messed up calculating those checks as well.
So all these 2 minute expert on how these folks should have known are speaking out their as*es. We were all hired knowing we'd be let go at the drop of a hat (once Census thinks they don't need you, you got let go, supervisors included) but the infrastructure to support having a huge temporary staff working for no more than 4 months almost didn't work. Heck, I bet half of these folks had no idea that they were considered federal employees and subject to the FICA tax fiasco.
And folks hired at all levels for these temp jobs ran the gamut of age, employment status, education, race, color and creed. Had to be willing to do the public contact work during pandemic (doing more public contact work than SSA field office folks were doing at that time) and this story rings true. And those Monday morning quarterbacks can simply find another group of people to get snarky and feel smug about being superior to. On this one, they are the uninformed.
7:13 so i guess none of these employees watched the news or any internet to see that they were not paying taxes, C'mon man!
ReplyDeleteYes, if they had set aside the money, there would be no problem but, hey, if the Government had simply deducted it like they always did before, there would have been no problem. What exactly was the deferral supposed to accomplish, other than to look good for Trump?
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