As of Jan. 1, 2012, employers in the Pennsylvania are responsible for taking out earned wage tax for employees per town.
We have 88 employees that live in 70 different townships. Each township has a different tax rate. It is a nightmare situation and a big burden for us to figure out what the different taxes are for each employee.
No one informed me that we would have to do this. I found out from one of my employees. This is a lot of work for us, and it raises many questions. For example, who is responsible if an employee doesn't tell you that they moved to a different township and you used an incorrect tax rate?
Why did this happen? I think townships themselves were having a difficult time trying to figure out what employees' wages are. So they decided to give that burden to employers. But this doesn't solve the problem of a very confusing system. It makes it worse.
This new rule is more costly [to us]. We will now have to spend many more hours on accounting and calculating the tax and making sure it goes to the proper township, which in turn will cost the company more. No doubt, there will be many hours going back and forth with townships on mistakes either the employers or the townships make.
Since we are a manufacturing company, we have high turnover. That means we constantly have to update employees' records. Our money needs to be better spent on manufacturing, so we can compete with companies overseas that clearly do not have the same costs and burdens that we do.
In case you haven't heard, President Obama wants the wealthiest to pay more in taxes.
