XPost: alt.california, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.society.liberalism   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: stupid.democrats@california.com   
      
   On 28 Feb 2022, Kurt Nicklas  posted some   
   news:svj682$1uedv$82@news.freedyn.de:   
      
   > Dechucka wrote   
   >   
   >> Ha! Ha! Ha!  Stupid fucking Democrat voters!  You morons voted for   
   >> this!   
      
   California business owners received an unpleasant surprise in filing their   
   taxes this year — the state of California has defaulted on its $18.5   
   billion federal unemployment insurance loans, and as a result, every   
   employer in California is being forced to pay additional federal taxes to   
   make up the difference until the loan is repaid in full.   
      
   If you found this news baffling, you’re not alone. I did too.   
      
   Federal unemployment insurance loans were essential to helping   
   Californians weather the COVID-19 pandemic, and in fact, most states   
   participated in the federal loan program. As the state mandated business   
   closures for months on end, these payments helped Californians who were   
   out of work to put food on the table and keep the lights on. However, out   
   of the 22 states that were forced to take federal loans during the   
   pandemic, California is one of only four to fail to repay its loan, and it   
   owes the largest amount of any state by far.   
      
   When states across the country received loan-free federal aid as a result   
   of the federal government’s unprecedented emergency spending packages,   
   most chose to use at least a portion of those funds to pay back the   
   federal loans they’d been forced to take to support their unemployment   
   programs. California received $15.3 billion in federal Coronavirus Relief   
   Funds, but allocated none of it to repaying its outstanding loans.   
      
   Even more baffling is the fact that last year California declared a   
   historic $97.5 billion budget surplus after passing a $300 billion budget   
   in May. That budget surplus was enough money to repay the federal   
   government loan more than five times over. Instead of making the fiscally   
   prudent decision to pay off the debt with part of this vast surplus,   
   California has instead allowed its loan obligations from the Federal   
   Unemployment Trust Fund to go unfulfilled for two years in a row,   
   triggering a provision that transfers responsibility for repaying the debt   
   from a state government to that state’s employers.   
      
   As a result of California’s failure to repay its debt, millions of our   
   state’s employers will be required to pay penalties to the federal   
   government this month in the form of higher Federal Unemployment Act   
   (FUTA) taxes. FUTA imposes a 6% gross federal unemployment tax rate on the   
   first $7,000 paid by employers for each employee.  This results in a   
   maximum federal tax of $420 per employee per year. Typically, California   
   employers receive a credit which reduces the tax paid per employee to only   
   $42 per worker per year.   
      
   When a state fails to repay federal unemployment insurance loans it takes   
   from the Federal Unemployment Trust for two or more consecutive years as   
   California has done, the FUTA credit is reduced for that state, meaning   
   every businesses in the state is forced to pay progressively more in FUTA   
   taxes for each year the state remains delinquent on its loans. After five   
   years, a different FUTA credit reduction calculation kicks in, levying an   
   even bigger penalty on the state’s employers and its economy.   
      
   The last time California was in arrears on these Title XII loans, it took   
   seven years to repay them, meaning that in the final year of repayment   
   (2017), every employer in California was forced to pay an extra $147 per   
   employee in FUTA penalties. That amounted to thousands of dollars for the   
   average small business that could have instead been used to grow   
   employment in our communities.   
      
   Small and large companies in California alike are already reeling from   
   economic instability, high interest rates, and skyrocketing inflation.   
   They’re also still struggling with supply chain fluctuations and   
   recovering from one of the longest state-mandated COVID-19 economic   
   shutdowns in the country. Forcing a higher tax burden on our employers as   
   a result of California’s gross fiscal mismanagement will undermine job   
   creation and drive prices even higher.   
      
   To add insult to injury, it is notable that better fraud enforcement by   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)