Trump’s Stimulus End Run Fizzles as Firms Spurn Payroll Tax Halt

A month after President Donald Trump moved to shore up workers’ incomes by giving employers the option of deferring payroll taxes, the effort has failed to energize a U.S. economy still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

No major private employer has stepped forward with plans to forgo withholding the levy from workers’ paychecks -- as Trump’s action allowed from Sept. 1 through year-end. Costco Wholesale Corp., with 163,000 U.S. employees at latest count, isn’t participating, and neither is United Parcel Service Inc. nor FedEx Corp.

Even the House of Representatives isn’t going ahead, concluding it “would not be ...