Employer Tax Credit Incentive For Hiring The Unemployed
By Nancy Berner
On Thursday March 18, 2010, President Obama stepped into the Rose Garden and signed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (or “HIRE”) Bill, passed by the Senate on Wednesday. Among other provisions, HIRE rewards employers who offer employment to the relatively long-term unemployed. Employers can take an exemption from Social Security payroll taxes for every worker hired after Feb. 3, 2010, and before Jan. 1, 2011, who has been unemployed for at least 60 days. The maximum value of the credit would be equal to 6.2 percent of wages up to $106,800, the FICA wage cap.
And if this isn’t enough, HIRE provides an additional $1,000 income tax credit to businesses for every new employee retained for 52 weeks, to be taken on the employer’s 2011 income tax return.
Democrats say the measure is the first of four they will try to enact before the November elections, so check regularly to see how the series of job creation bills will impact employers. The text for HIRE can be found here.