I got a letter today from the Washington State Employment Security Department. In it, I was informed they had forgotten to include my Employment Administration Fund in my tax return and that I needed to make sure to calculate that into my taxes. It also told me what the fund is for:
“The EAF is required by RCW 50.24.014 to cover the costs of providing work search assistance and training for unemployed workers.”
In other words, the government of Washington state is saying “We’re going to charge you money until every worker in the state that wants a job has one.” Heaven knows they’d probably still charge us at full employment. It’s like getting a ransom note in the mail.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I appreciate these services and I definitely want to help every unemployed worker out there who is willing to work for what they get. However, I don’t believe I should be taxed because Boeing chooses to layoff their workers because of an economic downturn (most likely caused by government intervention in the first place).
Perhaps instead of taxing firms they should take a cut out of each worker’s paycheck and then deposit it in a private account that the worker can then invest in the stock market and use it for his job search and/or training…sound familiar?
In a future post, I’ll discuss how much I really pay my employees.
