The jury’s still out on whether the first Obama stimulus package gave the economy the intended shot in the arm. Hasn’t stopped the president from doing it again, and this one may cost you.
Less than a year later, the President just signed another bill, with a similar intent.
But there’s little good news in this latest bill for business.
2 biz-impacting changes
The $24 billion package [H.R. 3548] is aimed at still-struggling consumers. But there are two key components employers need to be aware of:
- An extension of unemployment benefits. Out-of-work people who’ve exhausted their benefits by the end of 2009 will now get an extra 14 weeks of coverage. That number jumps to 20 weeks if your state’s jobless rate is 8.5% or higher. Who’s footing that bill? Your company – by continuing to pay the 0.2% “temporary” FUTA surtax through 6/30/11.
- A tax credit for struggling firms. Hopefully you won’t have to take advantage of this one. If your business lost money in 2008 or 2009, you’ll get a refund on taxes paid on profits the previous five years.
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Tags: H.R. 3548, Obama, stimulus
November 30th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Change you can believe in – indeed.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:04 am
I think this is change I can believe in. I think #1 will be rough on companies, but coming from an industry where employees we’ve laid off a year or two ago are still struggling to find work (architecture), I think an extension of unemployment benefits is a much needed thing for employees. I’d like to see more of this money actually stimulating job creation, though, instead of putting a band-aid on past problems.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:44 am
The first stimulus didn’t create any jobs, in fact the jobs they said had been created cost over $200,000 each. And these were government jobs.
The only way to get moving again is to get government out of the way and allow private enterprise to develop in an atmosphere of less government and taxes.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:16 pm
As a hiring manager I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to have people turn jobs down because their unemployment benefits haven’t run out yet. This is happening EVERY DAY. Add to that the complication with the Unemployment Division advising people on unemployment NOT to take seasonal jobs because it will “mess up their claim” and it’s easy to understand why people don’t want to work.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Our President is running blindly. I have never seen so much destruction in so little time & not a weapon has been fired. LEU & mtnst8 are both right. Wake up America!
December 1st, 2009 at 2:58 pm
The government needs to get out of the way and let the private sector do what it does best – produce without being taxed to death and penalized for producing. Government doesn’t produce anything, so how can they create jobs. That is a false idea they are promoting.