The Obamacare Taxman Cometh (Again)
About half of the cost of paying for Obamacare comes from new taxes. Some of those were already in effect before this year, but some of them are kick in for the first time this tax season.
The latest and greatest Affordable Care Act revenue raisers include an excise tax on medical devices, an increase in the Medicare payroll tax from 2.8 to 3.8 percent for couples earning more than $250,000 annually, and limits on flexible spending accounts.
This chart from the Heritage Foundation is slightly older, so its totals aren't quite up to the minute, but it gives you an idea of the tax hikes included in the law, the dates they go into effect, and the amount of revenue they are expected to raise.
As you can see, the new taxes don't end this year. There's still the "Cadillac tax" off in 2018, and the individual mandate penalty which the Internal Revenue Service will start assessing in 2014. As Sam Baker reports in National Journal, next year is when things really start to get interesting:
Next year's filing will be the first time the Internal Revenue Service enforces the law's individual mandate, which requires most taxpayers to either buy insurance or pay a penalty. There are several exemptions, including a waiver for people who can't afford insurance.
Once the next filing season rolls around, most Americans will have to do one of three things: prove they had insurance; prove they qualified for an exemption; or pay a penalty—$95 or 1 percent of their income, whichever is higher.
People who received tax credits to cover part of their premiums will need to make sure the amount they received lines up with how much they should have gotten based on their actual income.
"Right now [the subsidy] is based on a forecast of their income; next year will be checking the forecast against reality," said Mitchell Fox, director of product management at TurboTax. "That refund could go up or it could go down."
President Obama is already getting in on the fun. He paid $2,310 in Obamacare-related taxes for 2013.
