[berettafan]

why thanks luby, i thought i wasn't going to be asked!

The first area, and the Fed is doing it too, is via employment taxes. In Maryland employers pay unemployment taxes on the first $8,500 in wages for all employees. This rate, when i started working in public accounting 7 yrs ago or so, was typically in the 10ths of a percent. 8 tenths was not unusual. By comparison, Fed unemployment rate is 8 tenths. Well Maryland unemployment rates have been climbing through the roof over the last several years. Many of my clients are now paying rates as high as 8% or more! This is a MASSIVE increase in tax and in my experience (hundreds of payroll clients) these increases run across the board. So a small employer with 10 employees earning at least $8,500 a piece would be paying as much as $6,800 or more vs. as little as $680 five or so years ago. NOBODY talks about this in the news. The state unemployment auditors i have dealt with are incredibly aggressive as well.

The Fed has gotten into the employment tax hike game as well. Max wages FICA was paid on just a decade ago was, IIRC, $65k. Current figure is now $97.5k. Multiply that difference by 12.4%, then take that figure and multiply it by the number of employees you have earning at least $94k and you find a MAJOR increase in FICA tax that NOBODY talks about.

But wait, there's more. Maryland, along with some other states, has opted to 'decouple' from many recent 'incentives' given to us by the IRS. When the IRS said 'you can accelerate depreciation of certain assets into one year up to $104k' Maryland quietly said 'um...no'. So you will now find an adjustment on your Md return for this difference. And oh by the way your CPA now has to keep two different depreciation schedules.

Maryland has also stepped up frequency requirements for payment of withholding taxes. That is to say they want their money sooner. They have moved dates forward on other taxes as well.

It all amounts to a tax hike (even for timing issues like the 179 depreciation decoupling modification) and NOBODY has had to pay the political price for it.