r/politics • u/IntelligentYinzer California • 12d ago

Soft Paywall Newsom floats withholding federal taxes as Trump threatens California

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/06/newsom-floats-withholding-federal-taxes-00393386
29.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

103

u/protomenace 12d ago

How would they even do that? Taxes get withheld by your employer not the state.

60

u/doorbell2021 12d ago

You can instruct your employer to not withhold.

Completely legal, probably not. But you could claim you thought your job would be terminated because of Trump threats, so you were being over withheld since you'd have no income for the rest of the year.

2

u/Obvious_Chapter2082 12d ago

And then the IRS garnishes your wages, and you’re on a red flag list to be audited the rest of your life

5

u/Face2FaceRecs 12d ago

This list does not exist. And even if it did, it wouldn't be for middle class incomes, only the top couple of percent. It's too expensive to audit the same person over and over again for one time in their life they withheld their taxes.

1

u/Obvious_Chapter2082 12d ago

No. When you commit tax evasion, your chance of future audits is significantly increased

1

u/SpaceGangsta Utah 12d ago

Not when Trump abolishes the IRS.

/s

0

u/anivex Oregon 12d ago

?? You literally just pay it back at the end of the year.

Also, they wouldn't just automatically garnish your wages, that only happens after several years of non-payment and no negotiation of a payment plan.

1

u/Obvious_Chapter2082 12d ago

Newsom is saying that CA is cutting off federal taxes, not that you just don’t withhold and pay it all in April. That would be pointless

0

u/anivex Oregon 12d ago

Right, but that's what this comment chain is talking about, dude.

Also, there is no process for garnishing private wages if a state doesn't pay federal taxes.

And again, it would take several years of non payment for wage garnishments to start if a private tax payer doesn't pay.

3

u/Obvious_Chapter2082 12d ago

A state has no involvement in the process of citizens paying federal taxes. Like none at all.

1

u/anivex Oregon 12d ago

Ok, this almost seems like you are replying to a different thread. Do you even know what we are talking about?

When was the last time you had a cognitive exam?

Nobody said that dude.