The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is supporting the repeal of a law that requires withholding of 3 percent of payments made to government contractors, as well as certain other payments such as Medicare. The AICPA said it supports H.R. 674 which would repeal the requirement passed by Congress in 2005. Federal, state and local governments were affected by the law.
The AICPA said the withholding requirement would have a pronounced negative impact on government contractors with low profit margins. Members are also telling the organization that the law would also have a negative impact from a Medicare payment perspective on physicians, nurses, medical support staff and hospital administrators.
In a prepared statement, Patricia A. Thompson, chair of the AICPA's executive tax committee wrote that "We emphasize this latter point, particularly since we are not aware of any data suggesting that medical professionals (in general) are a compliance risk with respect to their payment of federal income taxes, considered the fundamental reason for imposing a withholding regime."
The withholding requirements were delayed from Jan. 1, 2011 to Jan, 1, 2012 and the IRS issued regulations on May 9 that delayed the date to Jan. 1, 2013.
