Bernie's New Tax

[KMFJD]

Great idea, anyone else like this?

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...s-tax-would-make-corporations-fund-100-public

To Force Billionaires Off Welfare, Sanders Tax Would Make Corporations Fund 100% of Public Assistance Their Low-Paid Workers Receive

Under the new legislation, "if an Amazon worker receives $300 in food stamps, Amazon would be taxed $300," the Vermont senator's office noted in a press release. The tax would apply to all companies with 500 or more employees.

 

[Bitek]

Don't see why I should be paying for it... Altho I think a real minimum wage would be easier to implement.

Don't want to see a disabled (SSI) or otherwise struggling person get penalized from being hired.

Article also stated that Amazon paid nothing in Federal taxes last year, and that's before Trump's tax cuts for rich people kicks in.
That's a real crime IMO.

 

[glenn1]

Great idea, anyone else like this?

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...s-tax-would-make-corporations-fund-100-public

To Force Billionaires Off Welfare, Sanders Tax Would Make Corporations Fund 100% of Public Assistance Their Low-Paid Workers Receive

Under the new legislation, "if an Amazon worker receives $300 in food stamps, Amazon would be taxed $300," the Vermont senator's office noted in a press release. The tax would apply to all companies with 500 or more employees.

Why limit it to corporations? Anyone who hires someone for more than $600/year and thus obliged to send a 1099-MISC should be on the hook as well. There's probably just as many urban progressives paying welfare level wages to the person who cleans their 1BR apartment once a month.

 

[UNCjigga]

Why limit it to corporations? Anyone who hires someone for more than $600/year and thus obliged to send a 1099-MISC should be on the hook as well. There's probably just as many urban progressives paying welfare level wages to the person who cleans their 1BR apartment once a month.

Paying for a service in the open market is not the same as hiring an employee.

Similarly, I'm pretty sure big corporations and their lawyers could find a million ways around this new tax with the current tax code (I.e. would this apply to contract workers, or workers placed through an agency?) But I think it's the right idea. I could see progressives and libertarians alike supporting something like this.

 

[Exterous]

So I did try to dig in to the Amazon employee payment a little more and followed the link to a site which got its data from another site. So I clicked to the third site which linked out to even more sites. Several were behind paywalls with no direct quotes from the papers. I tend to be a little skeptical of numbers reported with no way to actually verify the supposed results. It was also unclear how temporary workers filled into this. Amazon hires a ton of seasonal workers (120,000?) for the holidays. If these are included in the numbers then that would skew the results. Amazon claims this is the case. None of the linked substantiates a claim otherwise.

I think there is a good chance this is a misguided effort given that the lowest income workers' wages have been seeing significant growth:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/low-wage-workers-finally-get-a-raise/550487/

(The middle class is the one getting squeezed out)

Many of the high SNAP recipient businesses tend to be fast food restaurants and are, supposedly, ripe for automation. I also wonder how they will handle the franchise aspect of those. I doubt many of the franchise owners employ more than 500 and I think it would be hard (legally) to force McDonald's\TacoBell\Wendy's\etc to be on the hook for the wages franchise owners choose to pay.

Interestingly enough there are some government entities listed on the Top SNAP recipient organizations list like "Wichita Public Schools" and "State of Arizona". Both of those have well over 500 employees. So are we taxing those too? Or is it only not ok for companies to be on that list?

Overall this doesn't seem like a well targeted endeavor and more of a 'feel good' legislation piece particularly since I don't see it going anywhere (But I could be wrong). This doesn't mean I'm in favor of a lot of the business practices involved but I don't see this as a good way to address those

 

[glenn1]

Paying for a service in the open market is not the same as hiring an employee.

Similarly, I'm pretty sure big corporations and their lawyers could find a million ways around this new tax with the current tax code (I.e. would this apply to contract workers, or workers placed through an agency?) But I think it's the right idea. I could see progressives and libertarians alike supporting something like this.

Most people who "pay for a service" would actually meet the legal definition of the person being their employee since $600 is the threshold for 1099-MISC filing. We ought to be putting a shitload more people on trial for deliberately evading tax reporting and payment of payroll taxes. People blaming "big corporations" for that which they have a huge amount of culpability is part of the problem.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Wonder how much Walmart would have to pay...

 

[Blackjack200]

Why limit it to corporations? Anyone who hires someone for more than $600/year and thus obliged to send a 1099-MISC should be on the hook as well. There's probably just as many urban progressives paying welfare level wages to the person who cleans their 1BR apartment once a month.

I doubt you have any evidence for that. I've known a few people that have hired maids or housecleaners and they typically paid $80-$100 for roughly a half day's work. That's about $20/hour.

 

[Indus]

Wonder how much Walmart would have to pay...

Walmart's busy setting up their scan & go kiosks and removing workers. I've seen my local 2 wallmarts go from 200+ employees to about 40.

 

[Starbuck1975]

I like this idea. I also like the idea of taxing tech companies to fund programs for the retraining of workers they are displacing.