Sunday, November 01, 2009

The Company Store

Do you recall, from your history lessons, the outrage over coal companies’ company stores?  The coal companies, which owned The Company Store, for all intents and purposes, owned the coal miner by forcing the miner, through the coal companies use of script, to shop at the company store, as the script was monetarily useless outside of the coal companies realm.

I thought of that this morning after reading this.

Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners—holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.

Technically, it’s not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers’ annual tax bills won’t change.

Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You’ll be repaid any extra withholding in April. Those who would receive a refund anyway will receive a larger one, and those who owe taxes will owe less.

If you live in the State of California, you are owned.  I recommend that California adopt Sixteen Tons as the state song.

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?  Another day older and deeper in debt.  Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ‘cause I can’t go; I owe my soul to the company store…

California to withhold a bigger chunk of paychecks

Posted by John Venlet on 11/01 at 11:19 AM
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