The top Democratic tax writers warned the acting IRS commissioner Monday against setting this year’s tax withholding tables to inflate the size of tax cuts, implicitly suggesting that the administration would monkey with the withholding rules for political gain.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrats on the tax-writing committees, wrote acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter that they fear that the administration might “unduly influence” the IRS to set tax withholding artificially low, leading taxpayers to think they are getting big tax cuts that they are then forced to return during tax filing season in April 2019.
President Trump and Republicans have touted that the public will start seeing the tax cuts in February, when the new withholding tables reflecting the updated tax code are put in place.
Kautter is Trump’s appointee as acting IRS commissioner and also the top tax official at the Treasury.
“The Trump administration has tried at every turn to con the middle class into buying a tax scam that showers multinational corporations and the politically powerful with massive breaks,” Wyden said. “I’m proud to work with Ranking Member Neal to hold this administration accountable for any attempts to play shell games with middle-class wages and to keep millions of hardworking Americans from getting hit with unfair tax bills.”
The two also said that they have asked the Government Accountability Office to analyze the new withholding tables for any manipulation.
Payroll companies expect that the new withholding tables will be put out in time for employees to see any tax benefits in their pay stubs as soon as February.
