SB 234 – Withholding Tax Remittance
Authored by Sen. Linda Rogers (R-Granger)
This bill takes a very different approach to addressing the issue of potential mishandling of withholding tax remittances than what Sen. Rogers offered last year. Rather than requiring businesses to set up direct deposit accounts with the Indiana Department of Revenue to protect against fraud, this bill instead establishes registration requirements, notifications and more frequent deposits. Full description.
Chamber position: Support
The latest: The Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee heard testimony from interested parties. The chair, Sen. Travis Holdman (R-Markle), indicated there would be amendments before the bill is voted on at a subsequent meeting.
Indiana Chamber action/commentary: The Chamber is supportive of Sen. Rogers’ objective and diligent efforts to address this issue (the possibility of a payroll company absconding with the payroll taxes they’ve been entrusted with by their business clients). Last year’s bill would have seriously disrupted the process and disturbed the ability of businesses to utilize and rely on the service payroll companies provide. Since last year, Sen. Rogers has worked determinedly with payroll company representatives, the Chamber and other stakeholders to find reasonable means for improving the withholding procedures in order to enhance the protection of businesses from misappropriations by a payroll service provider. Our focus at the Chamber has been to ensure that any changes, while well intentioned, do not result in a process that creates new problems, or makes compliance more cumbersome or costly. We testified that “while we can’t really know until implementation, it seems that SB 234 is clearing most of those hurdles.” But some more work may be necessary to meet these Chamber tests. We will continue to participate in the crafting and consideration of this new proposal.
Resource: Bill Waltz at (317) 264-6887 or email: bwaltz@indianachamber.com
