Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Remember that 50th employee?

Almost exactly a year ago, we noted the pending demise of 50-employee companies. It now appears that even those fortunate enough to keep their current jobs (let alone obtain new employment) may be subject to reduced hours (and thus pay):

"Under [the ObamaTax], employers' cost to employ workers will climb up to $96.15 per person in the 30th hour they work each week"

That's because of a little-known "feature" of the ObamaTax called "Full Time Equivalent" (FTE). The purpose of FTE's is to discourage employers from hiring too many part-time workers by essentially combining multiple part-timers' hours and calling that one employee. So, for example, an employer with 48 actual full-time employees hires 4 part-timers. The IRS sees not 4 individuals working part time, but 2 working full-time, and that magic 50 employee threshold is reached (thus triggering mandates and fines additional taxes).

But wait, it gets worse (seriously!):

"Employers who offer health coverage that is deemed either too pricey or too skimpy will owe $3,000 for each full-time, 30-hour-per-week, worker who taps ObamaCare subsidies. Because the $3,000 fine is nondeductible, it's equal to $5,000 in deductible wages for a profit-making firm facing a 40% combined federal and state tax rate."

Remember, these are (by definition) small businesses, allegedly the backbone of our economy. Well, they *were* the backbone of our economy.

But wait, it gets murkier:

Co-blogger Bob tipped me to this little gem:

"Under the existing Senate immigration bill, immigrants who have been in the United States illegally can obtain a provisional legal status ... But this population would have to wait at least 13 years to be able to obtain full citizenship, and it isn’t until then that they could qualify for [the ObamaTax benefits]."

The net effect of this little lovely is that employers will have major economic incentives "to hire newly legalized immigrants over American citizens" because the former won't count against them in ObamaTax mandate calculations.

Hooray.
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