The untold cost of business in the golden state is the rising cost of literally everything related to performing a service or selling a product.
When I first started researching legislation taking effect in 2024, I was primarily focused on new taxes that will come into existence January 1. If you know anything about California, you know that the broadly defined term ‘taxes’ is only a portion of the story.
The untold cost of business in the golden state is the rising cost of literally everything related to performing a service or selling a product, from the rising cost of raw materials to the ever-increasing payroll costs per employee.
In addition to Sales and Use Tax (SUT) increase proposals across the state, employers in California will also see an increase in their Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) rate. As we have seen reported in countless stories since the pandemic, the state unemployment system was an absolute disaster, resulting in more than $32 billion in fraudulent payments. During the pandemic, twenty-two states borrowed from the federal government so they could keep paying unemployment benefits, and those states must pay that money back, plus interest.
Most states have already done this. But California is one of five states that hasn’t repaid those funds and California now owes $18.
