What is the deadline to pay the non-vax employee fine? If employers offer to allow employees to pay the fines, can employees use this fine payment as a tax deduction? Would employee's paying this fine as a [now] "required" work related expense qualify for tax deductions?
What I am trying figure out, is if there is a legal way for a company to beat the mandate game by playing along with the fines, but shielding the employees (or the company) from being actually hit by fine payments.
They plan to use OSHA as the agency that will be imposing and enforcing the fines. The fines are against a business, not against an employee. The problem that employers are now faced with is that if an employee gets COVID, there is no way the company can be blamed for that employee contracting the coof because there is no way to prove they were infected because of their employment there. If an employer enforces a vax mandate and the employee gets injured because of the vax, the employer now has put themselves in a position where their company rules can be directly linked to an injury incurred by the employee. That's why they gave the option for weekly testing in lieu of the vax - it makes it so the choice to get the vax is entirely on the employee. This is a big game of chicken because the FDA has pulled the EUA that allowed the PCR test for covid because they know it is not accurate They are trying to run out the clock and make it as uncomfortable for the unvaxxed to try to break their will before the test is no longer allowed. The "pandemic" ends when the inaccurate test goes away.
I see. So can the costs of weekly testing be counted for tax deductions, as a business expense?
I assume so sinse they would be an expense of doing business. They'll have to hire someone trained/credentialed to administer the tests too or I imagine they could not be seen as accurate if you just gave it to the employee to perform on themselves. How much will that cost a company of say 5000 employees to do on a weekly basis?
Which brings up a good point. Depending on the employee's who may be potentially fired, or lost by a company, perhaps it would be more cost effective (under certain circumstances) to pay the fine simply to retain valuable employees, and maintain stability, rather than trying to re-hire, re-train, re-certify, and endure hiring costs for replacements.