Congress has yet to agree on a way to help the American people. They keep promising that they’ll come up with an economic stimulus, but it’s been months.
Nancy Pelosi blames it all on Mitch McConnell – yet it comes down to maintaining a balance between helping Americans and being fiscally responsible. And no, Dems, we cannot give a bunch of money to illegal aliens.
Trump made a decision a while back to temporarily halt FICA taxes for military service members. Wheew.
It was the financial relief that many needed. However, no one was given a choice to opt-out. They all simply saw more money in their paychecks.
Trump promised to dismiss that “loan” if he won the presidency.
When we win I, as your President, will totally forgive ALL deferred payroll taxes with money from the General Fund. I will ALWAYS protect Seniors and your Social Security! Sleepy Joe Biden will do the opposite, he will raise your taxes and DESTROY our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2020
He didn’t win, though, and now servicemembers have to start paying their FICA taxes back at the beginning of the year. The biggest problem with that, however, is that they have to pay standard FICA taxes, too.
It will be double the amount for four months – and that’s a lot of money that many service members just don’t have – especially with the downturned economy thanks to COVID.
Come on, Congress. You can do better than this.
There’s not much time left. Washington seems to be focusing on the stimulus for everyone except for the military. The deferment would have to be forgiven before the end of the year. Otherwise, servicemembers all over the country will have to pay FICA, which is responsible for funding both Medicare and Social Security.
The executive order focuses on the Social Security obligation of 6.2 percent. Starting January 1, taxes would be 12.4 percent – what is usually owed and having to make up for the amount that wasn’t taken out through the last few months of 2020.
Yikes. That’s one heck of a financial burden. Veteran and military advocates have been talking about the financial strain it will put on servicemembers.
Many feel the pinch already for a number of reasons – overtime has been taken away in many branches, some reservists haven’t been able to go for duty training that pays overtime, and military spouses may have been laid off or have had their hours cut.
Although the executive order was well-intended, most service members didn’t think twice about it. Of course, Trump would get into office for a second term and it would be a non-issue. They took the money, they spent it, and they didn’t think about paying it back.
Until now… And now servicemembers are in a panic about what their paychecks are going to look like for the first four months of 2021. It’s one heck of a pay cut all because of the tax deferral that was applied automatically.
It’s not up to Trump to make it better. It’s up to Congress. Biden can’t even do anything about it until he gets into office – and that’s two paychecks into 2021.
Veteran organizations across the country are trying to be as loud as possible. Let’s lift the mandate so that the taxes don’t have to be paid at all.
Shouldn’t those working for the military get something? Those who have been unemployed through most of the pandemic have been able to see hundreds of dollars added to their unemployment checks for weeks on end. What’s a little bit of free FICA taxes for those who are defending the country?
A survey was sent out to close to 900,000 veterans who saw their paychecks affected by the FICA executive order. 90 percent agreed that their checks shouldn’t be docked by the IRS. After all, that’s one heck of a thing to do right after Christmas when it’s something that couldn’t have even been opted out of.
What’s Joe Biden’s team saying about what could be done about this? Oh, well they haven’t been available for comment. Of course not.
Let’s not help out the servicemembers. They’re only trying to protect the country.
It’s a crappy hand that servicemembers have been dealt. Congress needs to make things right, but time is running out.
