KOK Edit: Your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM)
KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) KOK Edit: your favorite copyeditor since 1984(SM) Katharine O'Moore Klopf
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Saturday, September 26, 2009

New MTA Tax for Freelancers in NYC Metro Area

I just found out about an obscure new tax that applies to self-employed individuals living in and businesses located in New York City and several surrounding counties: the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax (MCTMT).

The first estimated payment for it is due on November 2. I've seen no publicity about this tax, so it does seem to have been sneaked into place; it was enacted May 9, 2009. Here is what a colleague posted about it to one of the editing-related e-mail lists that I subscribe to:

[Here] is the Web site [with] information for the self-employed: [The MCTMT] applies to the five counties of the City of New York plus Rockland, Nassau, Suffolk, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester counties, for net earnings with $10,000 as the threshold point. (Below that figure, you don't have to worry about this.) The tax rate is .34% (.0034) of total net earnings within the geographic area listed above. That's $34 on $10,000. We are supposed to calculate this and make estimated tax payments starting on November 2, 2009. See the Web site above for all the details.


Please check with your accountant.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I own a business in Westchester. It's a small business with 10 employees. Just yesterday out of know where, when I went to do my payroll, my online payroll service notified me of approx $600 every quarter I would need to pay!! I couldn't believe my eyes!! This is ridiculous!! I'm not a rich man (65k/yr) and I took a huge personal risk to open my business!! Neither me or any of my employees use NYC's stupid, union-controlled MTA service!! So why do I have to fund the damn thing???

Katharine O'Moore-Klopf said...

I hear you, Anon. That's a lot of money. I feel the same way you do, and I live on Long Island and used the Long Island Rail Road years ago when I was an employee, before starting my own business.

Anonymous said...

I am mad as H E double hockey sticks. I am also a small business man with 12 employees in northern dutchess. I have employees that live in ulster county. Nobody goes to the city for work. I was hit with a $1630.00 bill today retroactive.

Where is my teabag?

Funny about Money said...

Whoa! That is AMAZING: they're charging you for NOT using their roads or their public transportation? That'll teach you, you rich, greedy telecommuters in your McMansions!

Sometimes I don't feel so bad for living in the bourgeois right-wing boondocks. If the city of Phoenix tried this, we'd have riots in the streets.

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