Reform Social Security by Taxing Corporations who use Independent Contractors? - The Virginian-Pilot
Here at the AMAC Foundation, we are acutely aware that Congress must reform Social Security soon to avoid an across-the-board 22% cut in every beneficiaries monthly SS payment. That was emphatically clear in the recent report by the Trustees of Social Security which predicted that the reserves held in Social Security’s Trust Funds will be depleted in late 2033. And AMAC has proposed a plan for Congress to avoid those cuts.
We also know there is no shortage of additional ideas about how to reform Social Security to avoid those cuts, and we diligently consider innovative ideas to avoid benefit cuts (notwithstanding the fact that Congress has steadfastly avoided seriously addressing predicted Social Security cuts for about 4 decades). Here at the AMAC Foundation, we are always interested in hearing new ideas on how to avoid Social Security’s solvency issue, so we are quite interested in the idea floated in this opinion piece by Kathryn Anne Edwards appearing at The Virginian-Pilot media outlet. In this article, Ms. Edwards suggests that corporations which use independent contractors should pay a Social Security tax on money expended for contractor services. Click here to read more about this idea.
As an example of leading thinking on reforming Social Security, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC, Inc.) believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized to serve future generations. AMAC’s position is that this can be achieved without payroll tax increases through relatively minor program modifications, including changes to the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) process and modifications to the formulas for calculating initial benefits for higher-income beneficiaries. Changes to the age for maximizing benefits are included in AMAC’s position, along with (1) an increase in the thresholds where benefits are subject to income tax; (2) indexing of these thresholds annually to account for inflation; (3) changing the taxable maximum formula to address the unintended loss of revenue; (4) improving survivor benefits, (5) eliminating the reduction in benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age; and (6) improving savings tools for future retirees, including a savings account that builds estate value. AMAC is resolute in its mission that Social Security be preserved for current and successive generations and has gotten the attention of lawmakers in D.C., meeting with many congressional offices and staff over the past decade.