- Image via Wikipedia
Have you noticed that most laws come with an acronym now? What’s up with that? It’s become so common (and fun!), that maybe passing laws with an acronym should be a law. README could be it’s name, or the Relentless Esoteric Attempt to Dominate and Manipulate Everyone… but I digress.
A new acronymed law was recently enacted on March 18th. Its name is the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (or HIRE… see?).
Here are some tax saving details of the new law:
1. If you hire workers (who were unemployed for 60 days prior to you hiring them) after February 3, 2010, and start paying them wages after March 18, 2010, then you get to keep the 6.2% of the employer’s portion of the Social Security tax.
2. The sooner in the year you hire these workers, the more you save because your benefit begins accruing immediately.
3. You get to take the credit on your quarterly 941 form (starting with the second quarter).
4. There’s no limit to the credit so go hire all you want, and take a credit for each new employee hired.
5. The worker has to sign a statement certifying that s/he was indeed unemployed before being hired.
6. Relatives and household employers (like my maid, nanny and my chef) don’t count.
7. If you retain the worker for at least a year, then you get a $1,000 tax credit on your 2011 tax return.
Truthfully, I’m not sure of the benefit of a law like this. If small businesses (which really run this country) were going to hire, then they were going to hire with or without an incentive to do so. Why? Because they need more workers. And those who are NOT looking to hire are still NOT going to hire because they don’t have the business to support new employees.
Like most laws in this country, this may or may not help you – it’s just a crap shoot whether you need an employee at this time in your business or not. We live in a world of reactionary laws. *sigh*
On another note, here is a calculator (on the right-hand side of the page) you can use to quickly calculate the savings anticipated from this law.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=6f2faa65-f204-4ff3-849c-f360be5e9b27)
Tags: HIRE Act, HIRE Act Calculator, HIRE Unemployed Workers, Laws Are Acronymed, Tuesday Tax Time
-
This law will benefit those who are unemployed currently. With these incentives, employers would choose an unemployed person over an employed one with similar credentials. This will help to balance the preference employers give to those already working. In this economy, when a person moves jobs laterally, the position is not always refilled. That preference may be given to unemployed applicants will likely (and hopefully) lower the unemployment rate.
-
Jessica-
Thanks for the comment! I hope your assessment is accurate. I know this type of bill is intended to help employers choose the unemployed over the employed when filling positions, I just don’t think those options are always available to the employer. This bill truly is going to help some employers, but it will be few and far between. I doubt the bill’s ability to really do any major damage to the unemployment rate. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
Again, thanks for reading!
Jason
-
Pingback from · Debt Discussions on July 7, 2010 at 9:38 pm
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://thriveal.com/2010/03/22/tuesday-tax-time-the-laws-are-acronymed-edition/trackback/