Democrats Call on Rothfus to Pay Payroll Taxes

The Allegheny County Democratic Committee Chairwoman is calling for the Internal Revenue Service and the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue to investigate whether Republican candidate Keith Rothfus skirted around his state and federal tax obligations.

Nancy Mills, a former member of the and township resident, contacted the agencies Wednesday via email and fax asking them to investigate whether Rothfus, an resident, who is , illegally misclassified his campaign workers as independent contractors to avoid paying payroll taxes.

The request comes following an article Monday in The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, reporting that Rothfus hires all of his staff members as independent contractors, making the consultants responsible for covering both the employee and employer shares of taxes, including Social Security and Medicare, when filling out Internal Revenue Service forms.

Rothfus campaign manager Jon Raso told the newspaper that Federal Election Commission law has not issued guidance on any differences and that it comes down to agreements with the staff.

Earlier this week, Critz campaign spokesman Mike Mikus said Rothfus was caught “red-handed” and should do the right thing by repaying all back taxes with interest going back to his first campaign for Congress in 2010.

In a statement on Wednesday, Rothfus’ campaign fired back, calling such statements “false” and “offensive.” 

Here is the complete statement: 

"Straight out of the Obama playbook, the baseless claims of Congressman Critz and his campaign are completely false and offensively deceiving to the voters.  There is nothing illegal about this campaign, there has been no issue with any agency, no taxes have been avoided, no taxes are past due, and all federal, state, and local taxes will be paid in full.  Not surprisingly, Congressman Critz has revealed he doesn’t know the first thing about small businesses.  More and more of the workers of Southwestern Pennsylvania are finding seasonal work as contractors because they can’t find work in the Obama/Critz economy."

"It is offensive that Congressman Critz and his campaign continue to accuse Keith Rothfus of false and baseless claims in a desperate attempt to hide his record of failure and save his own job.  The questions we ought to be asking: Why did Congressman Critz blindly vote to cut Medicare by $741 billion and leave our seniors’ healthcare at risk?  Why does Congressman Critz continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with President Obama in support of his failed economic policies?  President Obama and Congressman Critz have failed the workers of Southwestern Pennsylvania and brought us 43 consecutive months of above 8% unemployment. This is politics as usual from a career politician, and proves Congressman Critz doesn’t care about your job, he only cares about his own."