Your taxes and Obamacare

[Destroyer]

Your taxes and Obamacare

If this doesn't get to you, then check your pulse. You may be a flat line... Should you want to verify this, go to http://www.thomas.gov/, enter H.R. 3590 in the search box and look for "CRS Summaries." This is what you'll find.

Title IX Revenue Provisions***8212;Subtitle A: Revenue Offset "(Sec. 9002) Requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employee's gross income (excluding the value of contributions to flexible spending arrangements)."

Starting in 2011***8212;next year***8212;the W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are provided. It doesn't matter if you're retired. Your gross income WILL go up by the amount of insurance your employer paid for. So you***8217;ll be required to pay taxes on a larger sum of money that you actually received. Take the tax form you just finished for 2009 and see what $15,000.00 or $20,000.00 additional gross income does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year. For many it puts you into a much higher bracket. This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the fifteen (15) percent that don't have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases, but according to Obama it's not really a "tax increase" as such, it's just a redefinition of your taxable income.
Also, go to Kiplinger's and read about the thirteen (13) tax changes for 2010 that could affect you.

Why am I posting this? The same reason I hope you post this in every other forum you visit. People have the right to know the truth because an election is coming in 2012. So vote intelligently, based on your values. But also adjust your tax withholding, or increase your savings, so that you aren't surprised and put in a jam when your federal income taxes are due on April 15, 2012.

Fight organized crime! Re-elect no one.

[Road King Cole]

"So vote intelligently"

I just hope there is someone intelligent to vote for next time. I did a wasted "protest vote" last time as I also wasn't that excited about McCain. Perhaps I (and a lot of others) should have voted for him just to keep obama out...

btw, I like your new "fancy dancy" signature...

[RWilson2526]

We've had this discussion before....you are going to need to show me where the amount that will be required to be "reported" on your W-2 will be considered taxable income. From what I have learned the gubbermint is requiring that how much each persons employer pays for healthcare will be required to be reported on W-2's some some hard numbers of what healthcare is costing individuals can be documented. I cannot find anywhere that says it will be added to your taxable income.

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/05/hea...and-w-2-forms/
http://www.kiplinger.com/businessres...n-the-way.html
http://www.wscpa.org/Content/39530.aspx
http://www.associatedcontent.com/art..._of.html?cat=3

[willy]

RW I don't know where it is, I do know that my previous employer from where I retired has been notified of exactly what it says in that post.
Perhaps it is buried in the 2400 pages of the Obamacide that no one has finished reading yet. Or maybe a regulation passed sans Congress by the regulation Czar Cass Sunstein, or maybe by one of the regulations passed by one of the other Czar's of the current Politboro in the executive branch.
We will be told when it is time for us to know.

[Destroyer]

RW, you're right, we have had this discussion before. I reopened it because of something I was told the other day from the controller of the company I work for. She told me that, according to everything she has been told, and the classes that she's attended in order to understand the new health care law(s), we will, indeed have to pay taxes on that part of health care that is provided by our employers.

So in other words, and for the sake of discussion, lets say your health care plan costs $20,000 a year overall and that your employer pays for 50% of your health care plan and you pay for the other 50%. The part that you pay ($10,000) is not taxed, because it's an expense, but the $10,000 that your employer pays will be considered as income and will be taxed. She went further and stated that they will probably hand out 1099 forms for the additional income. (No, I don't know why) Now, I admit, this is all supposition and may or may not be the actual law, but, like I said, she's gone to courses already, and in them they are teaching that it is going to be treated as income. She's also a Senior VP in the company I work for, is the Controller of our company, is a C.P.A. and is pretty smart. She might be wrong. I might be wrong. The whole subject might be academic if the health care bill is ruled unconstitutional. But in all cases, it's an indication of the way that the present corrupt political government (left and right) in Washington is trying to screw the people of this Nation. We started to clean the cesspool this November past... we have to always remember that we need to complete the job in 2012.

[RWilson2526]

All right where is the "head banging against the wall" emoticon? Not saying its not going to happen someday, but I will blow you in Macy's window if I pay taxes on my health insurance for 2011.

http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/was...be-taxed-.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-..._b_641937.html

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-me...nce-pay-taxes/

http://www.boston.com/business/perso...pany_pays.html

[garagenc]

Hey RW

The boys are right about it being taxable.
I got info from the IRS telling me (and my accountant for the company) that says any money I put toward Employee health insurance is now part of the gross taxable sum that goes on the W2 form.

[RWilson2526]

Guys.....It is published in 100 different places that it is not....somebody PLEASE show me in writing from somewhere that it will be TAXED.... It may very well be listed under wages, tips and other compensation (which would be what your business accountant might say) but when you reconcile your tax dollars when filing, according to the current passed legislation it will not be taxed!.... It may very well read something like : Gross wages and compensation X dollars (which will include the health premiums) .....net taxable income X dollars(which will take out all your other deductions and the health premiums)....so your accountant would be correct in saying that the number would be added to your adjusted gross income but are your sure he said "TAXABLE" income....
Your adjusted gross income and your taxable income are not the same thing.

Look the Macy's thing was probably a bad idea but I got $300 to put up that you can split between as many of you that still believe this that at least as of 12/14/2010 your health insurance premiums will not be taxed in 2011 and starting in 2018 it will be taxed if it is over $27500.

Unfortunately I guess we wont know for a year until we file for 2011 who's right or wrong but in the meantime somebody please show me from some source other than my accountant said so that it will be taxed.

[RWilson2526]

Title IX Revenue Provisions***8212;Subtitle A: Revenue Offset "(Sec. 9002) Requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employee's gross income (excluding the value of contributions to flexible spending arrangements)."


And one last thing I just noticed...this is right from Destroyers original post....

[Franco]

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/hea...-my-taxes.html



Will health-care reform raise my taxes?

Not unless you are very affluent. The President***8217;s proposal to combine the House and Senate bills would expand access to quality reliable coverage and help tens of millions of Americans pay for it. To do that, it levies some new taxes, but very few people would actually have to pay them.

Income and payroll taxes: The President***8217;s plan follows the Senate***8217;s lead, and includes a 0.9 percent Medicare payroll tax on income over $250,000 for families, and $200,000 for individuals. Each of us pay this tax already, it***8217;s the deduction on your paycheck under the heading "medicare tax." The proposal would increase this tax for these high earners from 1.45 percent to 2.55 percent, but only on the amount of income over the $200,000 or $250,000 threshold. So a family bringing in $300,000 a year, would pay roughly $450 more a year in Medicare taxes***8212;about 0.15 percent of their income, or less than two tenths of a percent.

The president***8217;s plan also includes a new tax on what***8217;s called "unearned income." Right now income from things like interest earned, dividends, annuities, royalties, and rents is usually not subject to Medicare taxes. The President***8217;s proposal would make these sources of income subject to a 2.9 percent tax, but only for single taxpayers earning more than $200,000 alone, or joint filers earning more $250,000.

The Obama proposal eliminates the House plan to pay for reform primarily from a 5.4 percent tax surcharge on income over $500,000 a year for individuals, and $1 million for couples***8212;the so-called millionaire***8217;s tax.

Excise tax on high cost plans: The primary revenue component of the Senate and White House plans is a tax on expensive health care plans, sometimes referred to as "Cadillac plans." Most Americans get their insurance through their employers, which pay on average about 83 percent of the premiums, and somewhat less than that for family coverage. You likely don***8217;t even know how much that portion is, but it***8217;s part of your compensation and it***8217;s protected from income tax. The rest of your premium is usually deducted from your paycheck.

The President***8217;s proposal delays implementation of the tax and increases the threshold for plans to qualify for it. Under this proposal, the tax wouldn***8217;t take effect until 2018 and would apply only to plans with a total cost that exceeds $27,500 for a family or $10,200 for individuals (not counting vision and dental coverage). (For comparison***8217;s sake, in 2009 the average health insurance premium was $13,400 for a family and about $4,800 for an individual.)

The 40 percent tax would apply only to the portion of the premium above the tax threshold, and it would be paid by the insurers. So, after 2018, if you have a family plan that costs $30,000 a year, your insurer would pay a tax totaling 40 percent of the $2,500 beyond the threshold, roughly $1,000 per year. At least some of that expense would likely be passed on to you and your employer.

While the term "Cadillac plan" suggests that expensive plans are luxuries, that***8217;s not always the case. A plan may be more expensive because employees live in a part of the country with high health costs, or are older and more expensive to insure, or have inherently dangerous jobs such as firefighting or construction work. That***8217;s why the proposal would raise the "Cadillac tax" threshold another $1,850 for these categories of workers.

It***8217;s estimated that few families and individuals will have plans that would be taxed when it first takes effect in 2018. But the number who do qualify could grow over time because the cost of health care has been rising faster than general inflation. If the cost of health care slows, fewer insurance plans would be taxed.

And that is ultimately the idea behind the tax. One of the problems with our current health care system is that the uninsured and underinsured get too little care, while those who are fully covered sometimes get more care than they need***8212;and sometimes more than what is good for them. The excise tax would encourage employers to provide coverage designed to encourage more cost-effective treatments, which would help ease the rising cost of care.

As employers cut back on expensive plans to avoid the excise tax, they***8217;d transfer that part of your salary to wages. That means a bigger paycheck, on which, unlike the employer contribution to your health insurance, you pay income tax. That***8217;s by design, and it***8217;s largely how the Senate and White House plans would pay for health reform. The excise tax would raise only a small portion of its revenue by actually taxing benefits, and a much greater share as employers transfer compensation from nontaxable benefits to taxable wages.

Other taxes: There are a few other taxes included in the benefit that don***8217;t directly apply to consumers, but may be passed on to you in the form of slightly higher prices.

Over the next decade, the plan would charge drug companies $33 billion in fees, and device makers about $20 billion in excise taxes to help pay for the extra business they***8217;ll pick up selling their products to 30 million newly-insured Americans. Health insurers also stand to gain millions of new customers as a result of reform. Obama***8217;s proposal would raise revenues from these companies to the tune of about $67 billion over ten years.
Finally, if you frequent tanning salons, you***8217;ll pay a new 10 percent tax for exposing yourself to the risk of skin cancer.
***8212;Kevin McCarthy, associate editor