The System Doesn't Work After All

In June and August 2011 I wrote about attending a dinner and meeting New Jersey Assemblyman Jon Bramnick.  I told Assemblyman Bramnick about a problem one of my clients was having with a particularly unfair provision in the New Jersey Unemployment Law.  In a situation in which a business engages another business to perform a service, and the hired business does not properly pay its New Jersey Unemployment Tax liability, the first business can be held responsible for the unpaid unemployment tax.  For example, if you own an office building and hire a landscaping company to take care of the the grounds, and the landscaping company does not pay its NJ Unemployment Tax, you can be held liable to for the tax.  In my client's case, it was a transportation company that did not pay the tax on their drivers' wages.

Anyway, I described this situation to Assemblyman Bramnick, who agreed with me and proceeded to stand up at the dinner and announce to all that he would be introducing a bill to repeal this unfair provision.  A proposed bill was actually written and sent to me so that I could offer my opinion about whether the bill actually accomplished the purpose we discussed.  It did.

Several months went by and I heard nothing else regarding this matter, so I sent an email to the Assemblyman's office to inquire of its status.  The response was that the Unemployment Division had a problem with the bill.  What a surprise!  An objection to their ability to arbitrarily and unfairly assess tax!  I guess the system doesn't work after all, and it is clear that Assemblyman Bramnick's office follows the first rule of Fight Club.

Tomorrow I am taking my daughter to start her freshman year at Indiana University.  I am going to miss her a lot.  I know that she doesn't read this, but I have always been very proud of her, and I know that she will continue to make me proud.  I hope that the next eighteen years don't go by as quickly as the last eighteen.

Any comments on this or anything else, contact me at GShanker@krscpas.com.  I would like to hear from you.

I took this picture at Kips Castle in Verona, NJ. It's a pretty cool place.  If you click on the picture, you will get a larger version.