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Signed into law on June 4, 2008 by Governor Mark Sanford, the South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act (“SC Immigration Act”) began on July 1, 2009 for private employers with 100 or more employees. All businesses that have employees – even as few as one – must begin to abide by the provisions of the act by July 1, 2010.

To insure compliance with the SC Immigration Act, the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation will perform audits of employers. It will also investigate complaints against employers. In addition for being required to notify Federal and State agencies responsible for the enforcement of immigration law, there are stiff monetary penalties for failure to abide by the provisions of the law. If an employer fails to follow proper procedures for verifying worker eligibility, they will be fined a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $1,000 – per employee. If you are a small business who cycles through a fairly large amount of workers, this could become quite costly. If an employer knowingly or intentionally employs an illegal alien may get his license suspended or revoked. During the period that the license is suspended or revoked, the employer is not allowed to employ any employees. As you can see, this law can quickly put you out of business if you fail to abide by its provisions.

There has been a lot of misinformation out there related to the new 3.8% medicare tax on home sales that is in the new health care reform bill. In this short video, I clarify who it affects and to what degree.

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

I just got through reading an interesting post on BigGovernment.com from my Senator,  Jim DeMint, warning us of the latest power grab from Washington.  The proposed financial regulation bill runs more than 1,500 pages and is yet another in a series of massive freedom crushing pieces of legislation that are being shoved down the throats of the American people.

A major problem with the bill is that it is so far reaching.  It goes far beyond regulating companies such as AIG and Goldman Sachs.  As the bill is currently written will require any business that asses late fees OR allows customers to make payments in more than four installments to be treated under the same terms as AIG, Freddie Mac and Goldman Sachs.    This could have huge ramifications for small businesses – many of whom assess late fees on their past due receivables or who offer payment arrangements for their customers.  Given all of the other increased tax and regulatory burdens bearing down on small business – this is yet another that we do not need.    Not only is this going to be an increased burden on virtually every business in America, it will create yet another government bureaucracy that will give taxpayers a very poor return on the tax dollars it waste to establish and maintain the monstrosity.

According to Senator DeMint, one of the hardest areas to be hit will be healthcare – particularly orthodontists and their patients.  Currently, the cost of braces are typically done through a payment plan with the orthodontist.  Under the proposed law, this payment plan will come under the jurisdiction of yet another government bureaucracy – the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency which is slated to regulate all of these transactions.

Senator DeMint states that “the banking regulation bill was supposed to crack down on Wall Street, but it’s just another power grab that’s going to hurt Main Street doctors, dentists and small-town businesses. And, certainly the families who struggle to find ways to pay for their doctor bills.”

On Wednesday, I blogged about how North Carolina’s Amazon Tax actually resulted in lost revenues to the State.  The WSJ.com has an interesting article today, Maryland’s Mobile Millionaires, about how nearly a third of all of Maryland’s millionaires have vanished the state after it passed a tax increase on them in 2008.   This just goes to show that politicians usually do not think through the consequences of their greedy actions.

Most of you are probably thinking what I am – millionaires declined nationwide in 2008 due to the national recession.  The data goes on to show that one out of every eight millionaires that filed a Maryland tax return in 2007, did not file a Maryland tax return in 2008 – signaling that many had fled to other more tax friendly states.

I am not sure when (if ever) the elites throughout this Country will realize that they just can’t keep increasing taxes.  The answer to all of our budget problems always seems to be a tax increase. What about fiscal restraint and a massive slashing of the federal budget?

The rates are so high that mid-income to high-income individuals are refusing to start new businesses because they get so little reward for doing so.   Why would they want to take a big risk with so little opportunity for reward?  Even if they are successful, they send a bigger chunk of their profits to the government than they get to keep for themselves.