[Discuss] Mass Tax on Software Services

[Richard Pieri]

To be honest, I don't see this legislation as targeting high-tech 
workers. We're incidental victims of this. I think that the real targets 
are companies which engage in sketchy and abusive hiring practices. For 
example: classifying minimum wage, part time data entry clerks as an 
independent contractors so as to avoid paying into the Commonwealth's 
unemployment fund. MA has a HUGE pool of minimum wage "computer workers" 
who find work through temporary staffing agencies. It's these agencies 
and the companies that hire through them that are the real targets of 
this legislation. That's why it's a tax on services rendered. The broad 
phrasing is there to give the DOR the authority to prevent such 
companies from weaseling out of paying. That's why it's a tax on the 
services provided.

That's my two pennies worth, enough to pay the ferryman but you're on 
your own if you want Starbucks.

-- 
Rich P.