🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep6.070933.16476@porthos.cc.bellcore.com>, whs70@dancer.uucp (22501-sohl) writes:
> In article <1992Sep5.044504.20441@athena.cs.uga.edu> mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington) writes:
> >I have been told that the following 2 things are before the Senate, but
> >cannot locate them in Congressional Record and similar sources.  Can
> >anyone elucidate?
> >
> >(1) A bill to abolish private consulting, "Senate 1706", mentioned by
> >a correspondent to Robert Pease in a recent issue of _Electronic Design_.
> >(There _is_ a Senate 1706, but it has to do with import duties on some
> >industrial chemicals.)

(Flame on!)
Section 1706 of the 1987 (86?) Tax Reform Act was pushed through by
`Bedfellow' Moynihan, who (IMO) deserves to rot for making it hard
for people to earn a living without submitting to the umbrella of an
employer.  He pushed this bill through committee after midnight when
there was almost nobody in the chamber, and (by some reports) several
of those who were there were asleep.

Prior to 1706, the rules for whether you could call yourself an independent
(rather than an employee) depended upon `industry practice'; if the industry
in which you worked had many people who worked as independents, even if they
had only one client, you could call yourself an independent.

1706 repealed this provision of the tax code (called the `Safe Harbor'
provision) for technical workers, forcing programmers, engineers, technicians
and draughters who work for one client for extended periods to become
employees, with all the attendent tax disadvantages *AND CAREER
DISADVANTAGES* (IRA/401K instead of Keogh, for example, and non-portable
pension plans).  The purported purpose of the bill was protect the
revenue by preventing abuse of the Safe Harbor provision; the effect was
to make it illegal for an individual to maintain a long-term relationship
with a customer without sacrificing his pension savings and his independence.

It is commonly observed that this denies technical employees a professional
status extended to hairdressers.  It is also commonly observed that Bedfellow
Moynihan received a large donation that year from an association of large
`consulting industry' (body shop) companies.  (I have not enough bad words
to spend on this sleazeball of Congress-scum.)

Many talented people responded by withdrawing their services from the firm
for which they had worked and consulting in smaller jobs, or writing software
for sale, competing with others who were in that market by preference.
(Flame off.)
-- 
 (This man's opinions are his own.)
 From mole-end				Mark Terribile

 mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us, Somewhere in Matawan, NJ