To all Delta retirees:

We have received some additional information regarding the IRS withholding tax issue and wanted to share it with you. By the way, we also shared this information with Delta which they included in their e-mail to the Delta retirees today. You can find their response on the DeltaNet web site under Retiree Connection.

There are a few items we want to make sure you understand. The DALRC is not offering tax advice or legal advice as we do not have the expertise to do so. We are simply providing information which we hope will help our retirees understand and respond to this issue.

• The Making Work Pay credit of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 effects the tax withholding tables for 2009 and 2010
• This is not an issue caused by Delta but rather an IRS issue with the withholding tax tables provided to businesses country wide.
• The IRS web site has additional information on this issue including some on waiving of penalties.
  Go to:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204447,00.html to see this information.

• As long as you file your 2009 tax return and pay your taxes, if any, by April 15, 2010, you should not incur any penalties. Please contact your tax preparer for information on your specific situation.
• To avoid underestimated withholding taxes for 2010 you may need to change your withholding with Delta. Please go to the DeltaNet web site and then to the Retiree Connection to see the steps you need to take to make these changes. Your tax preparer can help you with the proper amount to withhold.

We believe it is important for us as retirees to continue to press this issue with our legislators by using our CAPWIZ application on our web site. We have retirees who will owe additional taxes due to under withholding in 2009. Coming up with additional sums of money by April 15 will place a hardship on many people living on a fixed income. The IRS needs to step up to the plate and provide a payment plan with no interest for retirees negatively impacted by their error. The only way to force the issue is by having our legislators intervene with the IRS on our behalf. The way to make that happen is to have retirees flood their legislators with emails, letters and phone calls asking for help and holding their legislators accountable for pursuing a workable solution.

Below is a response to board member Sandy Rollins from one of the Florida Senators:

Dear Mrs. Rollins:

Thank you for sharing your views regarding tax withholdings. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to respond to your concerns.

As you know, the Making Work Pay tax credit was implemented using new income tax withholding tables. However, the changes to the withholding tables did not take into account the dependents who receive wages, single taxpayers with more than one job, and joint filers where one or both spouses have more than one job or both spouses work.

It is incumbent upon the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to help the estimated 15.4 million U.S. taxpayers understand their options when faced with tax withholding problems. These problems were created by the IRS's implementation of the administration's $400 per person tax credit. I believe that the IRS failed to take into account all the necessary facts when they implemented this tax credit. I also believe that they need to go back and fix the problem, and then help taxpayers understand they might have a larger tax liability than expected. By implementing the tax credit the way they did, the IRS withheld a lower amount from each taxpayer's paycheck, thus increasing the potential for certain individuals to receive lower than expected tax refunds during tax filing season, or worse, a larger than expected tax liability bill.

The IRS has a duty to the American people to fix this withholding issue and to educate taxpayers of the potential impact because of this error. In our economic climate, I understand that tax relief is important to Floridians, and I am committed to continue working with my colleagues on this issue.

It is an honor and privilege to serve the people of the great State of Florida in the United States Senate. I take great pride in being a native Floridian, and I look forward to the tremendous opportunity to better the lives of all Floridians. I assure you I will work hard to represent our state to the best of my ability in the U.S. Senate. If I can be of any help to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Very truly yours,

George S. LeMieux
United States Senator

If you have not already done so, please go to the DALRC web page and the Call to Action section and send a message to your legislators regarding this issue. We have provided a response you can use or feel free to modify it to your specific use.

If you have already contacted your legislators, but have not received a response, please contact them again using CAPWIZ and modifying the response we provided, or you used, by inserting additional language like: "This is my second message to you regarding this issue and I respectfully request a response". You could also include something like: "We know Senator George S. LeMieux has responded to some of our friends in Florida stating that the IRS owes it to the American people to fix this withholding issue and I want to know your feelings on this matter".

The DALRC board will continue to work hard on issues affecting our retiree community and hope this information and opportunity to act is helpful to you.

Best regards,
The DALRC Board