Companies Must Now Swear — to the IRS — That None of Their Layoffs Are Because of Obamacare

[happyg]

This is one way to skew the Obamacare stats and turn the IRS into the Democrats’ personal political army in a stroke.


Consider what administration officials announcing the new exemption for medium-sized employers had to say about firms that might fire workers to get under the threshold and avoid hugely expensive new requirements of the law. Obama officials made clear in a press briefing that firms would not be allowed to lay off workers to get into the preferred class of those businesses with 50 to 99 employees. How will the feds know what employers were thinking when hiring and firing? Simple. Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that ObamaCare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions. To avoid ObamaCare costs you must swear that you are not trying to avoid ObamaCare costs. You can duck the law, but only if you promise not to say so.

 
Company officials will be trapped in a catch-22. They can lay off as many people as they want because of Obamacare. But because they’ll have to swear to the IRS that their decisions had nothing to do with Obamacare, they can’t speak publicly about what’s happening. What a great way to silence the people who are on the front lines of dealing with Obamacare’s horrific effects.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/02/11/companies-must-now-swear-to-the-irs-that-none-of-their-layoffs-are-because-of-obamacare/

[Bigun]

I predict that this will get slapped down HARD real quick like!

[Millee]

How is this even enforceable??? 

[Oceander]

One wonders how the IRS would go about proving that some company committed perjury when it swore that it didn't fire anyone because of Obastardcare.  Probably they'll end up putting a presumption in the rules that presumes you fired people because of Obamacare unless you can prove otherwise.

The IRS has really become a political weapon; it's been dragged so far down into the mud it's not even funny.  I'm surprised any of the old-timers can still continue to work there and also sleep at night.

[Bigun]

The IRS has really become a political weapon; it's been dragged so far down into the mud it's not even funny.  I'm surprised any of the old-timers can still continue to work there and also sleep at night.

   and 

[Gazoo]

Does this work the same way as Obama making terrorists in Guantanamo promise they will be good and he will release them?

Do they have to pinkie swear?

[Rapunzel]

Like the article says... this is being done to silence desent....

[Oceander]

How is this even enforceable??? 

It'll probably end up being enforced through the use of a presumption, something along the lines of presuming all firing was due to Obamacare if (1) the employer had significantly more than 99 employees before the firing, and went significantly under 99 after the firing, (2) the firings occurred within a relatively short time of each other - probably something along the lines of all firings done within a six month period, or perhaps between the time the up-to-99 exception was made public and the end of the tax year - (3) the change in workforce is disproportionate compared to firings done by companies within the same Metropolitan Statistical Area ("MSA") that were always under the up-to-99 limit both before and after its firings and by companies that were always over the up-to-99 limit both before and after its firings, and (4) there is no other apparent explanation for the firings such as a business failure.

The business would then be forced to rebut that presumption by providing enough evidence to demonstrate that the firings were done for a legitimate economic reason that had nothing to do with Obamacare.

[katzenjammer]

Like the article says... this is being done to silence desent....

Exactly, they don't care if you fire anyone, or everyone.  All that they want to do is make you sign something that says it wasn't due to 0care, and threaten the perjury charge so that you don't go out and say that you are.  They don't like hearing it all over the place that companies are laying off (or doing basically anything else "negative" due to 0care).  It is along the lines of "you dare not say anything bad about the King!!!"  (Very common in life under a despotic tyrant.)

[Rapunzel]

Exactly, they don't care if you fire anyone, or everyone.  All that they want to do is make you sign something that says it wasn't due to 0care, and threaten the perjury charge so that you don't go out and say that you are.  They don't like hearing it all over the place that companies are laying off (or doing basically anything else "negative" due to 0care).  It is along the lines of "you dare not say anything bad about the King!!!"  (Very common in life under a despotic tyrant.)

Soon we'll have billboards on the interstates of King Barack.  Shades of Iraq before Saddam was captured.

[truth_seeker]

For the fed gov to announce they will investigate a company's headcount, and possibly use it to punish, discourages hiring.

Better off with temps, independent contractors, etc.

[Olivia]

How is this even enforceable???

First thing the IRS will do is check your political party affiliation. If you're conservative, you will be involved in all kinds of legal entanglements to try and prove you had a lay off for a different reason other than Obama care.
You will then be overruled by the IRS and penalized big money.
Obama has all kind of ways to punish the ones that don't think he's the messiah.

[Gazoo]

First thing the IRS will do is check your political party affiliation. If you're conservative, you will be involved in all kinds of legal entanglements to try and prove you had a lay off for a different reason other than Obama care.
You will then be overruled by the IRS and penalized big money.
Obama has all kind of ways to punish the ones that don't think he's the messiah.

Maybe I won't get a letter from the IRS when I am registered as an independent?

It is sad I hesitate to sign Rand Paul's petition to sue because of fear of retribution from Uncle Obama.

[Olivia]

Maybe I won't get a letter from the IRS when I am registered as an independent?

It is sad I hesitate to sign Rand Paul's petition to sue because of fear of retribution from Uncle Obama.

There's thousands of us that feel the same way.

[Bigun]

Maybe I won't get a letter from the IRS when I am registered as an independent?

It is sad I hesitate to sign Rand Paul's petition to sue because of fear of retribution from Uncle Obama.

I don't fear retribution from Obama nearly as much as I do an endless stream of solicitation in my e-mail inbox!

Actually that's not true but it IS the reason I don't sign any of their on line petitions!