Delays to Tax Tables May Dent Paychecks (higher witholding for everyone in 2011)

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 7, 2010 | LAURA SAUNDERS

[reaganaut1]

Lack of congressional action on 2011 income taxes may force the Treasury Department to make unprecedented moves to prevent U.S. workers from seeing large tax increases in their January paychecks.

The issue: 2011 tax-withholding tables. Treasury officials usually release the tables, which determine the take-home pay of millions of wage-earners, by mid-November because it takes payroll processors weeks to adjust their systems before Jan. 1.

But congressional leaders recently postponed voting on taxes until after the election and lawmakers don't reconvene until Nov. 15. The Senate is scheduled to take up several nontax issues when it returns and is expected to leave for Thanksgiving soon after, possibly pushing a vote on taxes into December.

"Things get very dicey after the first of December" because of employers' need to know the 2011 rates, said Michael Graetz of Columbia University Law School, a former Treasury official.

Lawmakers' recent track record on dealing with tax matters doesn't inspire confidence that they will act with dispatch. Congress has yet to resolve the estate tax, which expired at the end of last year and is set to snap back to high rates come January. Nor has it tackled the alternative minimum tax for 2010, a levy that is set to hit 32 million taxpayers this year, compared with five million last year.

Some Capitol Hill tax staffers have suggested that the Treasury could set 2011 withholding at current levels for joint filers earning less than $250,000 ($200,000 for single filers), on the assumption that Congress seems likely to enact this change. Others have suggested that if Congress doesn't act in time, Treasury officials might consider a one- or two-month grace period in which it maintains current tables until Congress passes tax legislation.

[Buckeye McFrog]

the GOP needs to get out in front of this story NOW, lest the millions of Dunderheads out there blame them when their paychecks get smaller the very same month they are sworn-in to control of Congress.

[WAW]

I wish you luck with what is left of your country when the patriots are dead and eveyone has given up....

When Security is paid for withLliberty...You will have none of either.

[WAW]

I wish you luck with what is left of your country when the patriots are dead and eveyone has given up....

When Security is paid for with Liberty...You will have none of either.

[WAW]

I didn’t say you couldn’t bring your gun...I think that perhaps that could be another march, depending on how this one goes...But that’d be another discussion all together.

I am not attempting for foment revolution. I am attempting to foment a revolutionary spirit, a spirit that says, defiantly, the line is drawn here.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I don’t believe that I’m throwing away my liberty. I just believe that the moment is not right for armed revolution. That decision would be made within my family, it would not be made on a political forum. And if it came to that, I would have no problem defending my liberties. I just don’t believe that the time is right, today.

This is evidenced by the fact that I am not traveling to DC this weekend in protest.

I want to see what the results are for this much anticipated election before I give up all hope.

[WAW]

I do.

I think that Silence is Acceptance.

If you are silent on the issue - any issue - you accept the status quo.

Every person has to make their own decision. I wouldn’t have it any other way...

I don’t think the elections will be enough...I think the next brand of leaders could lead us down this same road sooner or later and we must hold them accountable now. Today, before they get in office.

It is only fair we confront them as well. They are either with the tyrants or they are against them. They say they want our support...They can have it if they want to help us carry pitchforks, torches, tar and feathers into the hall of the House and demonstrate to us that they truly represent us and not the tyranny instituted there.

When should we protest?

If not today, when? When do we say we will no longer accept this? How much more are you/we all willing to accept?

That’s what you are saying...You are saying, I will accept a little more tyranny for now...Maybe later I won’t accept any more tyranny, later, but this level of tyranny is acceptable. I can live with this.

I can not.

I can not accept any more tyranny.

I want the leadership to be confronted - to feel absolutely confronted - with having to decide to show us truly if they are serious in their tyranny or not.

I am not so delusional as to believe they will just get up and walk out quietly....

I am also not so delusional as to think they will have any other response other than the initiation of the use of force at some point, because that is the last argument of tyrants.

I think that too many Americans want someone else to be the Patriot, someone else needs to stand up for them, for their Liberty, someone else to be their voice.

This is my voice.

I have had enough of Tyranny. For me, it stops here.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I’m happy for you that you feel so principled in your stand.

Perhaps my life is different from yours. But I would first seek the counsel of my husband, consider the ramifications for my children and then proceed. We could only come to such a decision as a family.

I think the mood is changing rapidly, but I don’t feel a tremendous push for revolution today. And I don’t believe that there are enough numbers to reach the 100,000 protesters that was mentioned above. I think more groundwork would have to be laid before hand.

I also believe that after this election there is a strong possibility that the tides will have changed enough that we can bring about the end of Obama’s presidency. I’m willing to wait and see if that is possible. I have that much faith in the Americans to reject Marxism and return to our founding principles. The Tea Party is a terrific start towards that end.

[WAW]

One torch. One pitchfork. Mine. Fine... The number was an air grab... I don't imagine I personally could get 100,000 people to do anything...I have no such clout. I don't expect even for something like this the crowds similar to the Restoring Honor rally are possible, because probably less than 1/3 or 1/5 of the people there truly feel the need to take a stand. But those who do...Those who do would be a truly powerful voice to be heard. That's why I would neither expect nor want the same crowd levels...Because the level of dedication is different. This is indeed escalating the stakes. The stakes need to be escalated. We are not mad enough, apparently. We are not mad enough, because it just doesn't stop until someone gets mad enough to confront them with the clear choice to continue or not. So what if it's just me and my friends. This is not something I would take my children to. I want them to be safe. I want them to see it on TV, safe in the house. So, yes, I know it is escalating the tension. The tension needs to be escalated so the leadership can feel it. "I also believe that after this election there is a strong possibility that the tides will have changed enough that we can bring about the end of Obama’s presidency. " I hear you...And I hear a lot of Americans who feel just like you do...And to them I say this: HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY! The Tea Party dies when the enthusiasm dies...If people think this election is going to 'fix' this country, they are deluded and it will only be a matter of time before this and even far greater, even more egregious steps towards tyranny will be taken - and yes, tolerated. Silence is Acceptance. If this is what I have to accept, I won't go quietly.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I didn’t say it was hope. I said it was a belief. I really think the Tea Party can continue to be a force for change in this country.

You have to understand that my point of view concerns my children. Before the Tea Party even existed my husband and I were explaining the principles and values that this nation was founded upon to our children, because they were being lied to at school. This is a part of the fabric of our daily lives, not a fad we fell into when we saw the Tea Party rallies start. We were already there.

When Beck had his 8-28 rally, I did not really pay that much attention to it, because I was already there. He talks about commiting your life and honor to God. We did that before it was his idea. He didn’t need to lecture me on how important it was to embrace my faith in God and use it as a shield against tyranny. I had already committed my life to Christ.

These movements, this upsurge in a desire to return to first principles, was something that I didn’t need to latch onto. I live my faith, I love my country and I’m raising my children to do the same.

I do not take my freedoms for granted. I do believe in America whole-heartedly, and this is why I believe that our republic can survive the likes of Obama, because we do not live or die on who wins an election. I live for the future of America. I do not kneel at its grave.

[WAW]

I am open to other ideas.

I welcome them.

I want to see that intermediary step that warns the leadership and confronts them with the choice of either giving up on such tyranny or defending it.

I have made my contribution to the marketplace of ideas. If there’s a better one, I want to know it. I will certainly support it.

Tyranny is cancer. It cannot be tolerated.

[Kellis91789]

I wouldn’t have a problem with the AMT if it really was what it claims to be — an “Alternative Minimum Tax”.

Logically, you would think this meant “everybody should pay some minimum percentage of their income in Federal Income Tax.” Say 10%. But of course it doesn’t mean that at all, since half the people pay 0% and another quarter pay less than 10%. If it really did force everybody to pay 10%, the Individual Income Tax would bring in $1.4T — exactly the same revenue as the current tax system extracts from the half of Americans who actually pay income taxes. As a bonus, that $1.4T would replace Corporate Income Taxes as well, and allow the US to be one of the few nations that didn’t tax corporations to death.

Instead ... the AMT exists to make sure the successful people are denied the deductions and tax credits available to the unsuccessful. Somebody has to pick up the tab for the bottom 50% that pay nothing, right ?

[Kellis91789]

Since the tax tables need to be adjusted anyway, why not invert them just for fun ?

Put the highest tax rate on the first chunk of income, then lower rates on successively higher incomes. Punish failure and mediocrity, and reward success. What a novel concept that would be.

[eyedigress]

Obama has already accomplished that. 63 cent national tax on smokes was a kicker for the poor. 10% to 15% on the poor is a 50% tax. Yea, he’s a genius. Thank God he never hit the rich.