Employers are eligible for a payroll tax credit when the employer hires certain new employees after February 3, 2010, and before January 1, 2011. In order to take the payroll tax credit, the employee must have either been unemployed for at least 60 days prior to hire or worked fewer than 40 hours for another employer during the previous 60 days. Employers do not pay the employer portion of
social security tax, which is 6.2 percent, on wages paid to eligible new hires. Also ineligible are employees who earn more than $106,000 per year and employees who displace a current employee, unless the first employee resigned or was terminated for cause. Employers may claim the credit after an eligible employee signs a statement affirming their previous unemployed status, such as Form W-11. The Act also extends the $250,000 deduction limit under
Internal Revenue Code section 179 through 2010, authorizes $20 billion for highway and transit projects, and makes reforms to municipal bonds. However, allegedly as a result of FATCA, European banks such as
Deutsche Bank,
Commerzbank,
HSBC, and
Credit Suisse have been closing
brokerage accounts for all US customers since early 2011 citing "onerous" US regulations, which FATCA made more complex when it went into effect in 2013. ==See also==