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Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

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Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#71

Or it could be about protecting employee rights against exploitative corporations who flout the law for profit. Edit: and society for that matter. See Al Capone, a murderer, being finally arrested for tax evasion as an example.

Curious, in which world has taxation ever been for the benefit of the employee?

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have some numbers to share to support the hypothesis that pension plans will bankrupt these states without new taxes?

Illinois: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-illinois-pensions/illinoi... (Illinois' unfunded pension liability climbs to $133.5 billion) https://www.policyed.org/pension-pursuit/pension-liability-s... (PolicyEd: Interactive Map of Pension Liability by State and City) Illinois is an outlier, and is seriously in trouble, but most other states will be fine.

To the point that the other states are rather wealthy, yes they'll be fine.

My real question is what do these states do? Continue to raise taxes? Even the other states in question are losing high net worth tax payers to places like Nashville, Texas, Florida, Arizona, etc.

Do the just restructure in bankruptcy and leave all these people hanging who are relying on their pensions to live on?

Neither of these possible. I'm really at a loss at what these states should do.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#73

Or it could be about protecting employee rights against exploitative corporations who flout the law for profit. Edit: and society for that matter. See Al Capone, a murderer, being finally arrested for tax evasion as an example.

Curious, in which world has taxation ever been for the benefit of the employee?

In the world where ex-emoloyees collect unemployment insurance benefits when SuperMegaCorp lays them off.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#74
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Illinois: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-illinois-pensions/illinoi... (Illinois' unfunded pension liability climbs to $133.5 billion) https://www.policyed.org/pension-pursuit/pension-liability-s... (PolicyEd: Interactive Map of Pension Liability by State and City) Illinois is an outlier, and is seriously in trouble, but most other states will be fine.

To the point that the other states are rather wealthy, yes they'll be fine. My real question is what do these states do? Continue to raise taxes? Even the other states in question are losing high net worth tax payers to places like Nashville, Texas, Florida, Arizona, etc. Do the just restructure in bankruptcy and leave all these people hanging who are relying on their pensions to live on? Neither of these possible. I…

States can't declare bankruptcy, and in the case of Illinois, public pension benefits are guaranteed by the state's constitution. I don't have an answer unfortunately, although I think often of possible solutions.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#75
post #41
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closing the loophole in the law that lets them treat workers as "contractors" rather than employees is going to torpedo their whole business model.

I'm not sure why people think that drivers for Uber & Lyft shouldn't be treated as "contractors". I know I'm in the minority on this, but to me it seems that you can jump in and out of employment with Uber & Lyft quite easily, to the point that it does seem more like contract work. As an anecdote, I took a Lyft to the airport with someone who had stopped driving for 6 months in order to get started with a new full ti…

At least in Australia I think someone is only a contractor if they earn income from multiple different companies. If it's all from one then they are an employee.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#77
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why people think that drivers for Uber & Lyft shouldn't be treated as "contractors". I know I'm in the minority on this, but to me it seems that you can jump in and out of employment with Uber & Lyft quite easily, to the point that it does seem more like contract work. As an anecdote, I took a Lyft to the airport with someone who had stopped driving for 6 months in order to get started with a new full ti…

Contractors can set their own rates. These drivers are employees.

Taxi drivers don't set their own rates. What's the proper categorization?

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#78
post #3

If the state wins, I wouldn't be surprised if Lyft and Uber pulled out, or at least increased their fares by a substantial amount.

Personally I think they should pull out nevertheless and make an example out of NJ. That should give enough signals for other lawmakers not to come between consenting parties.

Just like how Uber pulled out of Austin, and in their place, a half-dozen firms with similar business models sprung up, to serve that market?

Uber's not some irreplaceable God's Gift to Man.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#79

Or it could be about protecting employee rights against exploitative corporations who flout the law for profit. Edit: and society for that matter. See Al Capone, a murderer, being finally arrested for tax evasion as an example.

Curious, in which world has taxation ever been for the benefit of the employee?

[deleted]

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#80

Or it could be about protecting employee rights against exploitative corporations who flout the law for profit. Edit: and society for that matter. See Al Capone, a murderer, being finally arrested for tax evasion as an example.

Curious, in which world has taxation ever been for the benefit of the employee?

Aren't tariffs (import taxes) supposed to benefit employees?
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