Business & Tech

House Republicans Fail to Pass Two-Month Payroll Tax Cut

The Senate did not pass a bill approved by the House that would have extended the payroll tax cut for all 12 months of 2012, and now workers will see their take-home pay shrink.

The House of Representatives left Washington, D.C., without approving a two-month payroll tax cut, which means U.S. workers are going to see their take-home pay cut by almost $40 every two weeks.

Rep. Tom Price, R-GA, says the President and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid need to agree to set up a conference committee to hammer out differences between the Senate's bill, which would keep the payroll tax cut for January and February 2012, and the bill passed by the House a week earlier that would have cut taxes for the entire year.

The Senate bill would cut payroll taxes by $167 because it is only a two-month extension. Another bill would have to pass to get the full benefit of the $1,000 payroll tax cut–or five more two-month extensions.

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The policy-neutral National Payroll Reporting Consortium says a two-month payroll tax cut, especially with the complexities posed with federal tax code, would be impossible to implement in such a short time. Businesses set up payroll taxes for an entire year, and need time at least 90 days to implement them.

President Obama continues to call for House Republicans to approve the Senate's two-month payroll tax cut.

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