And Your First Paycheck of the Year is.....

[Anonymous]

$500 for both of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're being totally disingenuous.

For three years (two years of the payroll tax, one year with make work pay), payroll taxes have been lower. Now they are higher. You can argue that it was only a "holiday" and you would be right. But it is similarly true that the "holiday" was intended to put more money into people's paychecks so they'd spend more and stimulate the economy. Naturally, people become accustomed to having that additional money. It's been more than 1,000 days now since taxes were at a higher level. So it's understandable that people are surprised and complaining a bit. I can't remember what my paycheck was like 1,000 days either. Can you?"

NP here. You honestly can say that you didn't think that payroll taxes would go back to their norm? That's disingenuous

pp here.

as a matter of fact, a reasonable person could easily conclude that a "temporary" tax break would become essentially permanent, as the tax code is filled with examples of this. To wit:

-- All of the business extenders (R&D tax credit)
-- AMT patch (extended temporarily; now made permanent)
-- Bush tax cut rates (not allowed to expire as scheduled in 2010, made permanent for 98% of the population earlier this month)
-- The payroll tax cut itself (extended already once, plenty of discussion that it should be extended again).

It also doesn't change the fact that no one walks around for four years thinking to themselves, "oh, this extra money is nice, but it's only temporary." As a matter of policy, people were urged to CONSUME the extra money in their paychecks, not save it (this was a stimulus measure, after all), so it's PERFECTLY reasonable to acknowledge that people will become accustomed to having that money in their pay and when it's gone, react badly.

Your average worker does not walk around keeping track of tax law effective dates in his or her head. That only happens in Washington.

Moreover, literally millions of people have entered the workforce over the last four years. So, yeah, it feels like a tax increase.

And, for all practical purposes, it's the first tax increase in 20 years.

And I say that as a liberal Democrat who supports higher taxes but understands why some people have their panties in a knot over this and find it repulsive that you would condescend to tell them they should have planned for it.

[Anonymous]

why don't they let you sign something that says you can opt out of ss on medicaire? I would love to opt out of SS, it should be just like your 401k where it's voluntary.

[Anonymous]

"For all practical purposes, it's the first tax increase in 20 years."

And STILL you people are whining about it. Grow up!

And 14:19: You know full well that your contribution to SS pays for current beneficiaries. If you want to "opt out," don't cash the checks when your kids are paying for your benefits.

[Anonymous]

Just got my first check of the year and it's lower by $50. I get paid twice a month so it looks like my take home will be $100 less every month. I make $70K per year. Will I miss the $100? Maybe but it's really not a big deal for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"For all practical purposes, it's the first tax increase in 20 years."

And STILL you people are whining about it. Grow up!

And 14:19: You know full well that your contribution to SS pays for current beneficiaries. If you want to "opt out," don't cash the checks when your kids are paying for your benefits.

+1

It isn't a damn savings account, no matter how much Bush and his administration tried to convince you it was.