The Republican tax scam isn’t done screwing Americans just yet
“Bend over and open up wide so the IRS can check your prostate for more of your income”
As if that wasn’t bad enough when many U.S. taxpayers were hit with substantial cuts to their anticipated tax refunds this year, thanks to the Republican Party’s massive 2017 tax giveaway to corporations and the nation’s wealthiest, ordinary Americans have even more headaches awaiting them. Why? Because the Republicans really, really screwed this one up.
They passed a tax scam that was not only unwanted and unasked for by the vast majority of Americans, but they rammed it through so quickly, in the dark of night, that they didn’t even bother to read it. After all, most of it had been written by the corporations in the first place, and the so-called tax “cuts” that went to ordinary, middle-class Americans were minuscule compared to those provided to multimillionaire corporate CEOs, for example. So it may have just never occurred to any Republican congressional representative or senator to inform the American people how the scam would impact their refunds, and specifically that Americans would have to significantly adjust the amount of taxes being withheld by their employers in order to obtain those same expected refunds.
But with many tax-filing Americans now irate about how they seem to have been ripped off, the same IRS that is now hiding Donald Trump’s tax returns from us has announced they’ll be issuing a new, very complicated withholding form so that Americans won’t feel as ripped off in the future.
[T]he law isn’t done with you. There’s another complication coming out later this year: The Internal Revenue Service is changing how you adjust your paycheck withholdings, and early indicators show it won’t be easy.
The agency plans to release a new W-4 form that better incorporates the changes ushered in by the new tax law so that the amount held back for taxes in each of your paychecks is more accurate.
So now they’re planning to issue a form that will suddenly make everything right? So let’s start the prostate exam?
While the new form hasn’t been released yet, the IRS last summer put out a draft version and instructions seeking feedback from tax preparation companies and payroll firms. Instead of claiming a certain amount of allowances based on exemptions – which have been eliminated – the draft form asked workers to input the annual dollar amounts for:
- Non-wage income, such as interest and dividends
- Itemized and other deductions
- Income tax credits expected for the tax year
- For employees with multiple jobs, total annual taxable wages for all lower paying jobs in the household
“It looked a lot more like the 1040 than a W-4,” Isberg says.
The new form referenced up to 12 other IRS publications to fill it out. It was so complex and different from the previous W-4 form that Ernst & Young worried employees would struggle to fill it out correctly and employers may need to offer training beforehand.
Also, there’s an added surprise in the draft “form” the IRS has issued for public comment. You have to disclose all sources of income to your employer. If you have a “side job,” you would have to disclose that to your “primary” employer. In other words, if your primary employer were to question why you aren’t, say, as “productive” as your co-workers, they have a ready-made excuse on your tax form: It’s because you’re devoting your time to something else, you slacker!
The draft form also requires you to state your spouse and family’s entire income. Some people may not want to disclose that, either. If you don’t want to give your employer all this private information, you would have the option of using the “IRS tax calculator.” Good luck with that. According to the American Payroll Association, the calculator is “not easy to use and the instructions are confusing.”
These change is happening right now” say awwwwww…….