Don’t waste Senator Kennedy’s name on a bill that is incompetent in it’s inception. Please ask your House of Representative member to vote NO on this healthcare bill. Force our government to go back to the drawing board and write a simplified bill that will be easily understood by all and remove the distrust of the American people. Everyone will get on board if the bill makes good sense, Common Sense! Make our law makers write a bill that will stand the test of time and be a real tribute, not a failure to a true American…Ted Kennedy. (This process does not need to be rushed, let’s get it right once and for all with bipartisan support).

Best Regards

Moms in business need to be able to telecommute, and they need to be able to hire telecommuters. However, a steep penalty for telecommuting often stands in the way: the telecommuter tax. This tax must be eliminated.

Under a state rule known as the “convenience of the employer” rule, states can tax nonresidents who choose to telecommute part-time to their in-state employer, not just on the wages they earn when they work in the employer’s state, but also on the wages they earn when they work at home, in a different state. Because the states where telecommuters live can also tax the wages they earn at home, many Americans are double taxed for telecommuting.

Say, for example, a mom residing in New York owns a public relations firm there. Among her employees is a Connecticut resident, who works primarily from home, travelling to New York on business only occasionally. Connecticut will tax the employee on the wages she earns at home in Connecticut. New York will then tax those Connecticut wages a second time.

The threat of double taxation discourages people from telecommuting, making it needlessly hard for moms in business to tap its many benefits. Mothers who are employees need telework to help them reduce commuting and dependent care costs and to ease the challenge of juggling both work and family demands. Moms who own their own businesses need telework to strengthen the competitiveness of their firms. For example, they need telework to help them hire the most qualified employees from the broadest possible applicant pool at the least expense; to help them minimize real estate, energy and other overhead costs; and to help them continue operating in the event of emergencies – like a surge in absenteeism due to swine flu.

A bi-partisan bill currently pending in Congress – the Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act – would remove the tax penalty for telecommuting across state lines, prohibiting states from taxing the income nonresidents earn when working from home. To help make telecommuting more affordable for more employee-moms – and to help moms running their own businesses use telework to increase the profitability of their businesses – Congress should make the Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act the law.

Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,
Nicole Belson Goluboff