Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed NYS tax reform that would eliminate the state income tax on wage earners. Instead, the state would levy a wage tax on the employer. By doing so, the tax burden would shift from workers — who face new limits on their ability to deduct state income taxes — to employers, who could still take full deductions for such payroll taxes. The legislation would spell out which kinds of companies would be eligible for this treatment.

Double taxation has been a basic premise to U.S. income dates, both domestic and international, since income taxes were first enacted by Article 13 of the U.S. constitution and is fundamental to all international tax treaties that the U.S. has signed. It is sad when our elected representatives in Congress sign tax legislation that they don’t understand.