Political Quotes

“April 15 is a day that generally is viewed with consternation throughout the United States. For many loggers in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, however, tax day is synonymous with bankruptcy. This is because the IRS insists on enforcing a little known, and less understood, tax law affecting loggers in my State. For nearly three decades, businesses in the timber industry have used an accounting plan that allocated a percentage of loggers' wages as rental for the use of the loggers' chain saws, thereby excluding this portion of their wages from income tax withholding, FICA, and FUTA taxes. This practice was acceptable to the IRS until the Family Support Act of 1988 required that an employee business expense reimbursement not be excluded from an employee's income unless it is paid under an accountable plan. The timber industry's traditional accounting procedure was not an accountable plan. Unaware of the change in policy, the timber industry continued to use their old accounting plan in violation of the new law.”