Posted on 06/02/2019 5:21:24 AM PDT by tired&retired
Amish & Mennonite do not pay 15.3% Self employment tax, workman's comp and unemployment insurance. They form partnerships including all employees as partners and claim 4029 exemption from Social Security under religious grounds.
In construction, workman's comp insurance often exceeds 30% of wages paid in some specialties such as roofing. Unemployment comp insurance is often 10% of the first $7K to $8K if wages.
Add the 15.3% SE tax and other contractors who are non-Amish can't compete. Amish have left the farms and have entered into many business ventures with an unfair advantage.
In addition, they normally have many children working and have child tax credits offset their income taxes.
Any group that legally avoids paying taxes to a Federal government that funds the abortion industry has my admiration.
Can I self-identify as Amish?
Why don’t you become an Amish and join them?
At least they work and do not depend on goverment for anything.
The solution is not to tax them.
It’s to stop taxing us.
Their are a lot of Amish in my area and they do create hardship for tax paying workers in the construction field.
Their tax exempt status should not extend beyond the properties they own.
What do they cost these systems?
I doubt they claim unemployment.
I doubt they would even try to make a claim under workman’s comp.
They usually live on minimally maintained dirt roads. When they use a vehicle, it’s usually a van and they travel as a group to be more efficient so they don’t put a lot of wear and tear on the roads. Police, fire ambulance? They don’t use public schools. Guess you could say they’re very conservative.
They don’t use all these systems so they don’t feel they should have to pay for them.
You beat me to it. Keep in mind that you’d be crazy to do business as a contractor without having WCI coverage. But that’s just me. I wouldn’t even hire a contractor who doesn’t have this coverage.
The IRS 4029 exemption from Social Security is based upon a religious belief against public insurances.
But they purchase public insurances for autos, in their businesses and liability insurance as contractors.
“”” In addition, they normally have many children working and have child tax credits offset their income taxes. “””
How do you know they even take the child tax credit? It’s voluntary just like claiming dependents. Seen their tax returns?
I’ve known a number of them who work as builders and framers. They are many things, but stupid is not one of them.
An Amish framing crew is usually four guys. Three have beards and straw hats, one wears a Nirvana or some other rock concert T-Shirt.
He’s the non-Amish grunt, gofer and driver.
They usually have great tools. One day I was talking to one and his phone rang. It was a standard household cordless phone. When I asked how that worked, he told me that he had a landline in a shack 100 feet from his house. It had a cellular converter that converted landline to cell signal. He had another converter in his trailer that converted the cell signal back to landline signal. Like I said, anything but stupid.
As far as the religious aspect, Amish are pretty far from the true Gospel. I have a friend who’s ex-Amish who explained much of that to me. Their religion is totally based on works and not on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Their metal buggy wheels, metal horse shoes, and metal tires on farm equipment destroy the highways.
Many of them use comouters.
Most use cell phones.
No, but you can be transAmish.
They built a couple of buildings for me years ago and both were VERY well done. Wonderful people to work with. The solution is to reduce the tax burden and size of government at the same time. 1 Sam 8:10ff provides the reason all of this is happening to us.
It was ok while they stayed working on the farm. But if they compete in business, no unfair advantage.
Worker’s comp, unemployment and socialist security are all scams anyway and should be done away with. People should decide for themselves if they want to buy such things.
Had good friends who were Mennonite and they and the Amish do not follow correctly New Testament teaching. You are correct. Overall, though, they are far more moral and upright than anyone else I have ever known.
I hope the Amish help to collapse this current government.
The Amish are as diverse as the general public.
Many beat and abuse their wives, children and animals. They are often greedy and fall for get rich quick scams.
However, they will not go to court as victims.
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