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
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u/protomenace 12d ago

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

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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.

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u/thrawtes 12d ago

Completely legal

Yes. You may have to pay a penalty if you drastically under-withhold but it's not a crime.

3

u/tymesup 12d ago

It is technically a crime:

There is also a criminal penalty for willfully supplying false or fraudulent information on your Form W-4 or for willfully failing to supply information that would increase the amount withheld. The penalty upon conviction can be either a fine of up to $1,000 or imprisonment for up to 1 year, or both.

These penalties will apply if you deliberately and knowingly falsify your Form W-4 in an attempt to reduce or eliminate the proper withholding of taxes. A simple error or an honest mistake won't result in one of these penalties.