This is money that should go to building schools, improving our crumbling infrastructure, and providing our veterans with the services they deserve. Nowhere has tax fraud become more prevalent than in the construction industry.
Due to a severe lack of enforcement tax fraud in the construction industry has become an accepted business practice across the country. The construction industry is a haven for companies who misclassify their workers, don't pay taxes and ignore laws aimed at ensuring safe job sites and protecting workers from exploitation. Keeping employees off-the-books is an illegal practice common in the construction industry that benefits suspect contractors who line their pockets with ill-gotten profits that should be going instead to local, state and federal taxing authorities. These tax cheats fail to pay their workers fair living wages, rarely provide medical coverage, while also evading federal, state and local taxes, overtime and workers’ compensation premiums. These practices are eroding our tax base, compromising the quality of our construction, and sap resources for quality apprenticeship programs making it harder to build a career in the industry.
Most Americans do pay their fair share of taxes, and there are consequences for those who violate our tax laws. Aside from the dramatic impact on our federal treasury - estimated to be $450 billion a year in lost revenue -- state and local governments throughout the country lose millions each year when construction and other companies pay their workers off-the-books -- or under the table -- or intentionally misclassify them as “independent” contractors. Lost revenue and blatantly ignoring the law is widespread - with revenue losses staggering in some states.
Tax Fraud Facts:
Contact your State Attorney General TODAY and tell them it is time for government at all levels to take action and stop this theft of much-needed revenue from our local, state and federal treasuries. It’s time to enforce our laws and stop the tax cheats from taking advantage of their fellow Americans.