Carbon Tax Not Likely for the US
Leaders from around the world are meeting at the United Nations COP 26 climate change conference to speak about the growing urgency of the global climate crisis. During this conference, a main subject matter under discussion was carbon taxes, as some leaders are calling on others to get on board with this levy. This comes ahead of a lack of participation in such a scheme from many major countries including the United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was a leading force, advocating hard for a carbon tax to be put in place giving reason behind taxation on emissions, saying, “One of the things we all know needs to come out of COP26 is a clearer call to create a global standard around putting a price on pollution. Not only will that encourage innovation, it will give that clear price signal to the private sector that making the right capital investments to transform to lower emissions makes sense. It also ensures that those who are leading on pricing pollution don’t get unfairly penalized.”
This is a different approach than the US is taking, as recently the Biden Administration attempted to input a carbon tax in its Build Back Better Act, but it was dropped in the negotiation. Instead, the U.S. is offering tax credits to incentivize the use of renewable energy resources; which includes wind, solar, and many various other forms of renewable energy.
Early ERC Termination
As the final version of the United States Infrastructure Bill is now sitting on Joe Biden’s desk awaiting approval, there are many factors affecting businesses and individuals everywhere. Included in the late stages of negotiations on the U.S’s infrastructure bill was talks of the early removal of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC); we now know that the ERC has ended as of the date September 30, 2021. This means all wages paid out after this date are ineligible for the credit. The IRS has issued guidance on claiming the credit in the third and fourth quarters of 2021 (Notice 2021-49). For more information on how this may affect you, give our office a call.
Jobs Continue to Surge Back
The month of October saw great gains in progress in terms of getting American’s back in the workplace. The United States unemployment rate dropped to 4.6% this past Friday, helping calm concerns that rising inflation, a labor shortage, and slowing economic growth would continue to keep job creation down.
This surge of new employees was seen in many different industries, giving some insight into the current economic recovery from COVID-19. The critical leisure and hospitality sector added over 164,000 jobs signaling an increased level of Americans getting out of the house for vacations as well as dinner and drinks. Professional business services (+100,000), manufacturing (+60,000), and transportation and warehousing (54,000) also saw large gains in hiring. On top of these increased rates of hiring, are increased wages, as there was an average increase of 0.4% for the month, totaling out to a 4.9% increase over the course of the year.