The U.S. Census Bureau has been stuck with a $7 million accounting mess after former President Donald Trump's administration ordered the federal agency to pause payroll taxes last year for certain employees, including many temporary 2020 census workers, NPR has learned.
The bureau was one of many federal agencies directed to stop collecting some employees' share of a payroll tax that helps fund the Social Security system in the final months of 2020. The deferral applied to workers earning less than $4,000 before taxes each pay period.
"In total, $7,078,909 in payroll tax collections were deferred for 177,964 temporary employees," the bureau confirmed to NPR in a statement.
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Immigration Hard-Liner Files Reveal 40-Year Bid Behind Trump's Census Obsession
Trump touted the push as a way to get "bigger paychecks for working families" during the coronavirus pandemic. The former administration had said it would try to convince Congress to forgive the payroll taxes. But with no movement from lawmakers, the extra money essentially became a temporary loan that workers had to pay back eventually.