California to Withhold a Bigger Chunk of Paychecks!

Yes...the geniuses who run the State have a brilliant idea:

Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners -- holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.

Technically, it's not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers' annual tax bills won't change.

Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You'll be repaid any extra withholding in April. Those who would receive a refund anyway will receive a larger one, and those who owe taxes will owe less. 

However, there is a way to avoid it:

Savvy taxpayers can get around the state's maneuver by increasing the number of personal withholding allowances they claim on their employer tax forms, said Brenda Voet, a spokeswoman for the state's Franchise Tax Board.

"People can get out of this," she said, noting that most people would have to change their allowances through their employers. California's budget leaders are banking on the hope that most won't.

Probably, most won't do it, however...and it's going to impact businesses just when they need all the help they can get.

The increase is coming at a bad time for store owners, many of whom depend on the holiday shopping season to keep their businesses alive.

"I don't think there's any question it's going to impact consumers' spending," said Bill Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers Assn. "Any time you reduce people's disposable income, there's going to be a negative effect on the retail sector."

Who says Democrats and RINOs hate business, prosperity, capitalism, and the middle class?? Who says gubmint is full of pinheads? Who says bureaucrats don't understand the free market, and will cut off their children's fingers before they'll cut spending someone else's money?

Whoever says it is a wise observer of the state of the State of California and the morons who run it.

wtp