US Congress Senate Bill 2145 (Prior Session Legislation)

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March 1 2012 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Pending: Senate Finance Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [PDF]

Fair Playing Field Act of 2012 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to the classification of workers for employment tax purposes, to: (1) repeal the prohibition against issuance of regulations and guidance by the Secretary of the Treasury on workers' employment tax status (i.e., as an employee or as an independent contractor) enacted by the Revenue Act of 1978; (2) direct the Secretary to issue regulations and other guidance to clarify the proper employment status of workers for employment tax purposes; (3) prohibit a retroactive assessment of employment tax, except with respect to certain skilled workers, for tax periods after December 31, 1978, and before a specified reclassification date for worker misclassifications, unless the taxpayer had no reasonable basis for not treating a worker as an employee; (4) require taxpayers who hire independent contractors on a regular and ongoing basis to provide such contractors with notice of their federal tax obligations, the labor and employment law protections that do not apply to them, and their right to seek a status determination from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); and (5) eliminate reduced penalty provisions for failure to withhold income taxes for taxpayers who lack a reasonable basis for treating a worker as other than an employee (i.e., as an independent contractor). Provides that for purposes of determining whether a registered representative of a securities broker-dealer is an employee for employment tax purposes, no weight shall be given to instructions from a service recipient which are imposed only in compliance with investor protection standards. Makes this rule applicable to services performed by a broker-dealer after December 31, 1997.

Fair Playing Field Act of 2012

Sen Kerry, John F.	Sen Akaka, Daniel K.	Sen Blumenthal, Richard	Sen Boxer, Barbara
Sen Brown, Sherrod	Sen Cardin, Benjamin L.	Sen Durbin, Richard	Sen Franken, Al
Sen Leahy, Patrick J.	Sen Murray, Patty

Date	Chamber	Action
2012-03-01	Senate	Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

HB4123 (Same As) 2012-03-01 - Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
SB2252 (Related) 2012-03-29 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
HB5727 (Related) 2012-06-04 - Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
HB6653 (Related) 2012-12-12 - Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Type	Source
Summary	http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:SN02145:@@@L&summ2=m&
Text	http://gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s2145is/pdf/BILLS-112s2145is.pdf