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Calif. targets 'underground economy' of off-the-books hiring, pay
ABC7 ^ | Jan. 3, 2012 | Nanette Miranda

Posted on 01/08/2012 2:11:45 PM PST by La Enchiladita

SACRAMENTO -- The state of California targets an "underground economy." Agencies are going after businesses that pay employees in cash, avoiding workers compensation insurance and withholding taxes. The state's going high-tech to crack down on those employers.

The Contractors State License Board of California has videotaped numerous sting operations where they catch businesses operating without a license and hiring workers under the table -- meaning those businesses aren't paying payroll taxes, workers compensation insurance or contributing to unemployment benefits like legitimate businesses, and pocketing that money instead.

California's underground economy, which includes the landscaping, restaurant, farming and construction industries, is estimated to cost the state $7 billion per year in lost revenue.

(Excerpt) Read more at abclocal.go.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: aliens; budget; california; economy; illegals; immigration; jerrybrown
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To: La Enchiladita
Agencies are going after businesses that pay employees in cash, avoiding workers compensation insurance and withholding taxes.

Why aren't they going after the employees, as well as the employers??? People who work off the books and don't declare their income and pay taxes are just as guilty as the employers who hire them. You can't have one without the other. If the employers owe $7 billion, the employees probably also owe several billion...why not go after that too???
21 posted on 01/08/2012 2:32:56 PM PST by rottndog (Be Prepared for what's coming AFTER America....)
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To: La Enchiladita

Target rich environment. I wonder when the illegals get an exemption.

22 posted on 01/08/2012 2:33:24 PM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: dragnet2

What do you mean, an employee works under a contractors license, he isn’t his own licensed company.


23 posted on 01/08/2012 2:33:33 PM PST by ansel12 (Romney is unquestionably the weakest party front-runner in contemporary political history.)
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To: Clock King

Oh, come on. Is paying taxes a news flash for you? Listen, as long as taxes are part of the game, then EVERYBODY pays them. Would you like the state to go bankrupt and have Mexico take over?


24 posted on 01/08/2012 2:35:59 PM PST by La Enchiladita (Newt says amnesty isn't amnesty.)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS

The foreign third world invasion is a JFK legacy which was finely made into law in 1965.


25 posted on 01/08/2012 2:37:23 PM PST by ansel12 (Romney is unquestionably the weakest party front-runner in contemporary political history.)
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To: ansel12

That word was meant to be ‘finally’.


26 posted on 01/08/2012 2:38:21 PM PST by ansel12 (Romney is unquestionably the weakest party front-runner in contemporary political history.)
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To: La Enchiladita

California could make this work by setting up an 800 number to rat people out. Then you would have most of the illegals ratting each other out due to jealousy, lover’s quarrels, revenge, drug deals gone bad....

The possibilities are endless


27 posted on 01/08/2012 2:40:25 PM PST by dennisw (A nation of sheep breeds a government of Democrat wolves!)
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To: La Enchiladita

I used to mow lawns in CA for cash. Would they come after me for that now?


28 posted on 01/08/2012 2:41:56 PM PST by Rio (DNRC)
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To: Rio

Probabaly. I used to work for a delivery company that did the same.

Everyone was on straight commission.


29 posted on 01/08/2012 2:44:43 PM PST by BenKenobi
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To: Rio

If you are an employee or a contractor, then yes.


30 posted on 01/08/2012 2:46:49 PM PST by ansel12 (Romney is unquestionably the weakest party front-runner in contemporary political history.)
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To: La Enchiladita; Cincinatus' Wife
Hmmm. Smells like cash payments to illegal immigrants at below-govt.-approved wage rates to me...

Let's see -- do they go to Texas or not?

And if they do, does Perry claim credit or not?

Cheers!

31 posted on 01/08/2012 2:47:27 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: rottndog

Requiring the employer to pay up requires the employer to fire the illegal employees, so it’s a win-win solution to the overall problem of illegals. We have been saying on FR for years and years that employers of illegals SHOULD be targeted. Otherwise, it does no good to catch-and-release.


32 posted on 01/08/2012 2:52:24 PM PST by La Enchiladita (Newt says amnesty isn't amnesty.)
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To: La Enchiladita

This is a good thing. Employers have been cheating the system for their own benefit, at the cost of us taxpayers, since the early seventies.


33 posted on 01/08/2012 2:57:07 PM PST by Randy Larsen (For those who I've offended, I apologise for my previous objectionable behavior.)
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To: La Enchiladita

this is probably one of the reasons consumer spending continued to increase even while the official unemployment numbers continued to increase.


34 posted on 01/08/2012 2:57:25 PM PST by beekay
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To: La Enchiladita

Used to be that the excuse by CA was people working off the books didn’t make enough to pay taxes anyway. My, how tunes change.


35 posted on 01/08/2012 2:58:36 PM PST by pacpam (action=consequence and applies in all cases - friend of victory)
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To: La Enchiladita

Under the table businesses?? Will that include drug dealers and porn producers?


36 posted on 01/08/2012 3:00:40 PM PST by ExCTCitizen (If we stay home in November '12, don't blame 0 for tearing up the CONSTITUTION!!)
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free
They are going to have to close down every family run Asian and Mexican restaurant in the state.

I remember when they pulled a raid on the restaurants in the Mammoth Lakes ski area in California a decade or so ago. Every restaurant in town had to close down for several days until Immigration left town.

37 posted on 01/08/2012 3:00:50 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (My greatest fear is that when I'm gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them)
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To: La Enchiladita
There's no way California can get away with this -- unless ILLEGALs are ignored.

If not Gil "One bill" Cedillo and the other Mexican and Latin American representatives in the government will have a bill passed by lunch time Monday and Brown will be there with hundreds of thousands of immigrant "rights" groups to sign the bill.

So if ILLEGALs are 100 times more likely than citizens to be doing this the solution will be to fine the citizens 100 times more. That's California!

38 posted on 01/08/2012 3:01:40 PM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: La Enchiladita
The crackdown is not popular among day laborers like Jose, who wouldn't give his last name. Off-the-books jobs are the only ones they can get in this economy. "I think it's going to be bad," said Jose. "It's not good for us."

It's not going to be good for the greedy corrupt business owners either Jose!

39 posted on 01/08/2012 3:02:14 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: rottndog

“Why aren’t they going after the employees, as well as the employers???”

You can bet they will - though not directly. These “underground employees” are also likely collecting welfare, food stamps and other elements of the panoply of cradle-to-grave benefits.

The welfare state is just “extra” money for the underground employees


40 posted on 01/08/2012 3:11:30 PM PST by RFEngineer
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