OPINION:
While Congress debated the merits of the two-month extension of the payroll-tax holiday (“Shortened session shows divide over tax cut,” Web, Wednesday), no one mentions the outrageous economic impact that this legislation will have on our small businesses, nor the millions of dollars wasted by the Senate to come up with this drivel.
In fact, it’s a perfect example of our Senate doing a heinous job at compromise merely to enable its members to go home on vacation. There is absolutely no consideration of the havoc being wreaked on our economy or our businesses because of the instability that comes with not knowing what the tax rate will be.
Every company with payroll will have to make changes and adjustments. Even now, they have been waiting with uncertainty as to how to proceed in the coming year - and we are mere days away from 2012.
Congress does not have the capacity to consider what changes need to be made to accounting software, nor how a business is to institute any changes to the tax schedule in a proper and timely matter. It’s ludicrous when you consider not only the nightmare of compliance and calculation, but also the inefficiency from all the extra man-hours spent.
Such a short-lived extension in the middle of tax season creates the absolute certainty that mistakes will be made - lots of them. Mistakes mean Internal Revenue Service penalties. Sending out notices, following up, making corrections and dealing with taxpayers fighting the penalties are gross misuses of our government’s time and resources - all undertaken because Congress is incompetent and shortsighted.
Maybe there should be a rule that Congress cannot pass anything business-related without a six-month lead time to implement. Of course, that probably makes altogether too much sense for the likes of government to institute.
ALAN DLUGASH
New York
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