by | ARTICLES, BLOG, BUSINESS, ECONOMY, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, POLITICS, TAXES
Back in 2008 when Obama was debating Hillary Clinton on national TV, Obama discussed with the moderator how raising the capital gains rate would likely reduce federal revenue collections, but he insisted it was good policy anyway — because it was a policy of “fairness”.
Why would raising the capital gains tax be a revenue loss? The effect of higher taxes slows the economy because those paying the higher capital gains have less money to invest. Unfortunately, such a policy was implemented in 2013 when capital gains went from 15-20% and was coupled with the new 3.8% surtax on investment income to pay for Obamacare, making the rate 23.8%.
Now he wants to tax, yet again, the very type of taxpayers who have money to create jobs and/or invest, by raising the capital gains rate up to 28%. This is essentially about an 18% tax hike on high income earners — two years after the last capital gains rate increase. That’s practically doubling the rate in just a few short years. And during this time, the economy has remained sluggish.
It’s a shame that Obama continues to push for policies that would have a negative effect on jobs and the economy in an effort to promote “fairness through taxation” and pay for his pet projects (such as free community college!). The concept of an American President continuing to go after people making a lot of money it is particularly loathsome; it also displays an absolute lack of familiarity with and respect for how people get wealthy — he just wants their hard-earned money.
Back in 2008 during that same debate, Obama claimed, “What I want is not oppressive taxation. I want businesses to thrive, and I want people to be rewarded for their success. But what I also want to make sure is that our tax system is fair and that we are able to finance health care for Americans who currently don’t have it and that we’re able to invest in our infrastructure and invest in our schools. And you can’t do that for free.”
But with Obama, you can do it by wealth transfer.
by | ARTICLES, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, POLITICS, TAX TIPS, TAXES
Budget cuts to the IRS will be impacting citizens more drastically this year. The Taxpayer Advocate, Nina Olsen, painted a bleak picture for filing season and beyond in her annual report to Congress.
The Good:
— The number of audits will decline.
The Bad:
— Technology upgrades will be delayed, although the Commissioner, John Koskinen, is “reasonably confident — very confident” that upgrades needed to handle Obamacare related information has been successfully completed.
The Ugly:
— If you call, it is likely that only half of the estimated 100 million people will ever reach an IRS agent on the other end.
— Hold times will exceed 30 minutes or more.
— Low-income taxpayers will no longer receive assistance to fill out their tax return paperwork from the IRS.
— Processing a tax return filed by paper will ensure tax refunds will be delayed.
— The option to leave a voicemail to request an appointment face-to-face at a local office has been removed, instead instructing taxpayers to “send an email” (though not everyone has email).
— The IRS is mandated to provide callers with the option to speak to a live person on its helplines, but would not even clarify to the Taxpayer Advocate which lines are designated helplines when calling in.
The IRS budget was reduced by nearly $350 million for this fiscal year. Commissioner Koskinen claims the “agency’s $10.9 billion budget is its lowest since 2008. When adjusted for inflation, the budget hasn’t been this low since 1998.” Employees may even face a two-day furlough. You almost feel bad for the guy. Almost.
Don’t forget, the IRS had requested a $1 billion increase in order to hire another 6,700 agents to assist with Obamacare compliance. That was on top of the already extra $1.5 billion the IRS budget had received in recent, prior years, along with 1,200 new agents.
To be sure, the IRS has kindly provided increased information on its website for taxpayers and tax preparers, including a section dedicated to Obamacare compliance, in an effort to cut down on phone calls. I’m sure that particularly helps all the people without ready access to the internet.
The bottom line seems to be: do not call the IRS anymore unless it is absolutely necessary.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, POLITICS, TAX TIPS, TAXES
The IRS is getting ready for Obamacare to be accounted for by every citizen. For completing this section of your tax form, the IRS has published 21 pages of instructions, as well as long forms and tip sheets.
For Americans who do not have Obamacare, the process is simple: check a box indicating you have insurance. For those who enrolled in an Obamacare plan through the Marketplace, they will have a more comprehensive section. If a person opted not to have any insurance, he or she needs to pay the fine/tax, which has been named the “shared responsibility payment”.
Additionally, if you are an Obamacare enrollee, you will not be able to file your taxes until you receive a new Obamacare form, the 1095A. The proposed deadline to send out the forms is January 31, 2015, which also coincides with the date that employers must issue W-2 to their employees.
Form 1095A is necessary; filers need the forms to calculate whether they received the correct subsidy from the government, or if they owe money to cover a difference. If they owe money, that amount will be deducted from any anticipated returns.
by | ARTICLES, ECONOMY, ELECTIONS, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, POLITICS, TAXES
The Daily Caller did a great job uncovering more of the information surrounding the writing and passage of Obamacare. Going back to 2009, the chief architect of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber, made two very specific points about the bill: 1) it is unaffordable because there are no cost controls; 2) in order to control costs, treatment would have to be denied.
Below are highlights from the 2009 policy brief:
* “The problem is it starts to go hand in hand with the mandate; you can’t mandate insurance that’s not affordable. This is going to be a major issue.”
* “So what’s different this time? Why are we closer than we’ve ever been before? Because there are no cost controls in these proposals. Because this bill’s about coverage. Which is good! Why should we hold 48 million uninsured people hostage to the fact that we don’t yet know how to control costs in a politically acceptable way? Let’s get the people covered and then let’s do cost control.”
* “The real substance of cost control is all about a single thing: telling patients they can’t have something they want. It’s about telling patients, ‘That surgery doesn’t do any good, so if you want it you have to pay the full cost.’”
* “There’s no reason the American health care system can’t be, ‘You can have whatever you want, you just have to pay for it.’ That’s what we do in other walks of life. We don’t say everyone has to have a large screen TV. If you want a large screen TV, you have to pay for it. Basically the notion would be to move to a level where everyone has a solid basic insurance level of coverage. Above that people pay on their own, without tax-subsidized dollars, to buy a higher level of coverage.”
However, what the American public was told by Obama is that Obamacare would lower the cost of insurance by $2500. Now we know, even more than ever, that we were told whatever was necessary in order to make the bill palatable enough to eke out passage in Congress despite protestations from much of around the country.
You can read the entire policy brief here.
For more on Jonathan Gruber and Obamacare, go here
How “Obamacare Was Sold on a Pack of Lies”, go here
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, TAXES
If you are an Obamacare recipient, you may find you owe money at tax time for Obamacare subsidies that you received if you had income or life changes in the year that you didn’t report to the Marketplace.
Most people who purchased Obamacare plans found they were eligible for subsidies to help offset the cost of their insurance premium payments. These subsidies are officially called “premium tax credits”. Enrollees had the option of applying none, some, or all of their premium tax credit to their insurance costs. Those that applied some or all saw their monthly premiums lowered as a result. Those who chose not to apply the premium tax credit to their plan at the time would instead see the tax credit applied to their tax returns — either lessening a balance owed, or adding to a refund amount.
Subsidies were calculated based on a person’s income and family size. In a situation where an enrolled person has had a straightforward year from start to finish with no major life or income changes to report, it is likely that there will be no problems or unwarranted surprises at tax time.
If, however, an enrolled person received their premium tax credits to help offset the cost of their premiums, but then had a life change or income change, their income tax returns will probably be affected. Examples of such changes include, “A move, an increase or decrease in income, a marriage or divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, whether you started a job that offers health insurance and whether you gained or lost eligibility for other health care coverage.”
Once you file your tax return next spring, the IRS will look at your actual income earned in 2014, and will compare it to the amount of income that was estimated and entered on the enrollment forms for Obamacare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have recently noted that “at least 279,000 households reported incomes that still don’t match what the government has on record”. For those households, documentation has been requested and needs to be received by September 30th.
For those who have had a life or income change during the past year, it is imperative to report it now if it already hasn’t been reported to the exchange — either a state exchange or healthcare.gov. In this way, if tax credits need to be adjusted up or down based on the change, it’ll be done ahead of tax time.
For those whose life change may have potentially decreased the amount of tax credit available, filers may find they owe at tax time. Here’s how:
“Premium tax credits are available to individuals and families with incomes between 100% of the federal poverty line ($23,550 for a family of four this year) and 400% of the federal poverty line ($94,200 for a family of four) who purchase coverage in the health insurance marketplace in their state.
The tax credits are paid directly to the insurer, if taken in advance. People are not required to take the entire credit in advance. Realistically, if you cannot afford insurance, you’d need some credit in advance.
To be sure, there are some caps on the amount filers must pay back and the cap is based on household income. The cap ranges from $300 to $1,250 for some single taxpayers and $600 to $2,500 for married taxpayers, again based on income.
But if the income is 400% or more above the poverty line, there is no cap and the taxpayer must pay back the full amount.”
Health care officials realize that many people aren’t aware they are expected to keep their life and income information current, but because the proper subsidies depend on accurate information for accurate calculations, they are trying to get word out.
If you think you might have changes that could potentially impact your tax credit, you can use this calculator from the Kaiser Family Foundation website to assess your situation.
by | ARTICLES, BUSINESS, ECONOMY, ELECTIONS, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, POLITICS, TAXES
Peter Shumlin, a Democrat governor from one of the most liberal states, made a jaw-dropping admission when he released his much-awaited plan for a single payer health system in Vermont. Shumlin’s proposal called for massive tax increases to pay for the system, which Shumlin himself called “detrimental to Vermonters”. Shumlin stated,
“These are simply not tax rates that I can responsibly support or urge the Legislature to pass. In my judgment, the potential economic disruption and risks would be too great to small businesses, working families and the state’s economy.”
Support for this proposal was tepid at best. His plan, which he eventually submitted after missing two financing deadlines, called for “businesses to take on a double-digit payroll tax, while individuals would face up to a 9.5 percent premium assessment.” Shumlin also stated that federal funding for the transition into such a health system was now expected to be $150 million less than originally planned, a huge amount of money at stake for such a tiny state.
Perhaps feeling the heat from the extremely narrow election in November (which he actually hasn’t officially won yet), Shumlin basically denounced his own proposal as soon as it was released. What’s more, Obamacare is particularly odious in his state right now as well, as Vermont shelled out some $400,000 in taxpayer funds to Jonathan Gruber, for health care “consulting”.
Shumlin is finally learning that, with socialism, you eventually run out of other people’s money.
by | ARTICLES, ECONOMY, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, QUICKLY NOTED, TAXES
From Fox Business:
“The health insurance industry says companies will give consumers more time to pay January’s premiums under President Barack Obama’s health care law.
The move is an attempt to head off potential problems as the Obama administration renews millions of current customers, while trying to accommodate new ones as well.
Renewing coverage each year is standard operating procedure for private insurance plans.
But 2015 is the first renewal year for the health law, and the process involves a massive electronic data transfer from the government to insurers, happening right around the holidays. Last year, many files had errors.”
The grace period was just announced after health insurance enrollment ended Monday, December 15th. Insurers are also aware for the potential problem of “double billing” from a consumer who switched plans, and will work to rectify any issues in a swift manner. So, if you purchased an Obamacare plan this year, you’ll have a little extra time to be certain that you were billed correctly, and only once.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, TAXES
If you are an Obamacare enrollee, you will not be able to file your taxes next year until you receive a new Obamacare form, the 1095A. That means if the government is not on time getting the forms out, taxpayers who need the form could face a delay receiving anticipated refunds.
The proposed deadline to send out the forms is January 31, 2015, which also coincides with the date that employers must issue W-2 to their employees.
Form 1095A is necessary: filers need the forms to calculate whether they received the correct subsidy from the government, or if they owe money to cover a difference”. The IRS has a working draft on the form, but doesn’t yet include the instructions on how to calculate the proper subsidy amount — and that’s the key.
Because of the extensive problems during the Obamacare rollout and initial signup period, some folks may find that the did not receive the proper subsidy. Additionally, changes to income during the year might also affect the outcome. The Form 1095A is designed to match up the income for 2014 with the subsidy amount received. Some might find they will didn’t get enough of a subsidy and will receive money back, while others could have the opposite problem: their subsidy was too high, and they now owe money back.
So Obamacare users — be on the lookout for the 1095A early next year. Even if you have all your documentation to file your taxes, you still may not file until you receive that form. Hopefully the government will not be as late on issuing it as it was with other Obamacare related items.
by | FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, POLITICS, TAX TIPS, TAXES
If you are one of the millions of Americans who declined health insurance and decided to pay the fee tax fine penalty, be aware that it will be a part of your 2014 tax calculations. The penalty for 2014 is relatively cheap, a means to transition Obamacare into your life, but next year and subsequent years, the penalty goes up swiftly — pressuring you to get a health insurance plan or else pay a somewhat hefty price.
Here’s how it works:
“Beginning in 2014, absent a qualified exemption, you will be required to obtain health insurance. If you fail to comply, you will be subject to a penalty of 1.0% of your annual income or $95.00, whichever is greater. In 2015, the penalty increases to the greater of 2.0% of annual income or $325 per person. The following year it becomes the greater of 2.5% of income or $695 per person. After 2016, it will be indexed to the cost of living. It should also be noted that the maximum penalty is capped at three times the per person penalty. For example, if you earn $28,500 in 2014, 1.0% of your income would equal $285. Therefore, if you earn more than this, your maximum penalty would remain the same. All penalties will be due and payable with your annual federal income tax return. Hence, the penalty for 2014 would be due by April 15, 2015 and the IRS will be the collection agency used.”
The method of assessing and collection the fee is through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The fee will be collected by deducting its cost from a person’s tax refund. But for those who don’t get a refund, the IRS isn’t allowed to demand payment either, so it is unclear how those fees will be attained. This ambiguity also leads to further questions about how Obamacare is being actually being paid for (as the penalty is one of the revenues to help offset the costs).
“For Americans unsure how the mandate applies to them, there’s plenty of information available from the government itself and from many third-party web sites. The law was designed to make it cheaper for most people to buy insurance than pay the penalty fee, which rises from $95 per person or 1% of your income (whichever is greater) in 2014, to $325 per person or 2% of your income in 2015. (In 2015, the maximum penalty is the national average premium for a bronze plan.)”
Don’t forget too: if you are an Obamacare user, you will have to file an extra form with your taxes, the 1095A. The IRS has a working draft on the form, but doesn’t yet include the instructions on how to calculate the proper subsidy amount. This could potentially cause issues for those who wish to file their taxes right away, because they will have to wait until they receive their form in the mail from the government. To learn more, read here.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, CONSTITUTION, ELECTIONS, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, OBAMACARE, POLITICS, TAXES
Is Executive Amnesty is inexplicably tied to Obamacare?
On Monday of last week, the New York Times reported that Health and Human Secretary, Sylvia Burwell, projected 9.1 million enrollees in Obamacare by the end of the year. This is in stark contrast to the original projections by the Congressional Budget Office, which “had estimated that 13 million people would be enrolled next year, with the total rising to 24 million in 2016”.
The New York Times also noted that, “in the past, the White House has used the budget office numbers as a benchmark for success under the Affordable Care Act.”
Currently, enrollment stands at 7.1 million, down from the 8 million touted last year by Obama. This reduction stems from persons who failed to pay premiums or could not prove their identity and therefore considered ineligible.
Additionally, HHS curiously forecasted that “most of the new marketplace enrollment for 2015 is likely to come from the ranks of the uninsured,” and less likely from persons who had already been paying for their own insurance without the marketplace.
If enrollment is lagging so badly behind expectations, how could Obama possibly salvage numbers for Obamacare so that it could show a modicum of “success under the Affordable Care Act”?
Answer: Executive Amnesty.
Early estimates have put those who might benefit from Obama’s amnesty plan to be 3-5 million, a number that would neatly fit the amount necessary to bolster the fledgling Obamacare, which was Obama’s signature policy.
Now, if one goes to the healthcare.gov website, and hovers over the “Get Answers” tab, it opens up a tab which includes the section, “Coverage For…” Guess who is first on the list? Immigrants. Immigrants are listed ahead of “Young adults, Self-employed people, Unemployed people, People with disabilities, People with job-based coverage, Military veterans, American Indians & Alaska Natives, Pregnant women, Same-sex married couples, Retirees, and Incarcerated people.” (in that order). So if a immigrant was granted amnesty, the government made it very easy for him or her to get started.
Within the section under “Immigrants”, the website lists 17 types of immigrant status that makes one eligible for Obamacare. Furthermore, six more types of status are eligible if one has applied for a particular immigrant program, and yet another five more status types are able to enroll in Obamacare if they are coupled with employment authorization. That makes 28 types of immigrants who are eligible for an Obamacare plan already.
Now, to be fair, the website explicitly states at the bottom of the page: “Undocumented immigrants aren’t eligible to buy health coverage through the Marketplace. They’re not eligible for premium tax credits or other savings on Marketplace plans.”
However, that’s where Obama’s 10-point Executive Amnesty plan comes in. Under this plan, “President Barack Obama is on the verge of granting executive amnesty and work permits to five million illegal immigrants, including the illegal immigrant parents of children who are American citizens OR previously received executive amnesty under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012.”
Now, the first thing to note about the relationship between amnesty and Obamacare is the part about DACA. On healthcare.gov, it states that “Deferred Action Status” is eligible for Obamacare, but also notes specifically on that same bullet point that “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is not an eligible immigration status for applying for health insurance”. Now, if Obama implements his Executive Amnesty plan, those currently claiming DACA status will be able to suddenly attain Obamacare — allowing potentially many, many new subscribers here.
Another analysis from HotAir goes further in depth:
“One key piece of the order, officials said, will allow many parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents to obtain legal work documents and no longer worry about being discovered, separated from their families and sent away.
That part of Mr. Obama’s plan alone could affect as many as 3.3 million people who have been living in the United States illegally for at least five years, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration research organization in Washington. But the White House is also considering a stricter policy that would limit the benefits to people who have lived in the country for at least 10 years, or about 2.5 million people.
Extending protections to more undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, and to their parents, could affect an additional one million or more if they are included in the final plan that the president announces.”
Hence, if Executive Amnesty goes through, the warning on the healthcare.gov website regarding undocumented immigrants is no longer applicable to those who would receive protections; thus, they would be eligible to purchase an Obamacare plan.
As it stands now, a large number of legal immigrants are already using Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. In a report released just this past week from the Center for Immigration Studies, “immigrants have accounted for 42 percent of the growth in Medicaid enrollment since Obamacare began being implemented in 2011”. Furthermore, “The high rate and significant growth in Medicaid associated with immigrants is mainly the result of a legal immigration system that admits large numbers of immigrants with relatively low-levels of education, many of whom end up poor and uninsured.”
2011-2013 have proven to be successful for immigrant-related Obamacare signups; therefore, the likelihood for immigrants who receive amnesty to sign up for an Obamacare plan or product seems relatively high. As a very rough estimate number, if Obama was to grant amnesty to 5 million immigrants, (a middle estimate figure) and assuming the signup rate for Obamacare just among those immigrants is 42% (to stay on trend), then 2.1 million immigrants would sign up.
If HHS is predicting 9.1 million enrolled by the end of the year, and then potentially another 2.1 million can be also factored in, the White House is getting closer to the originally projected figures. Remember, “in the past, the White House has used the budget office numbers as a benchmark for success under the Affordable Care Act”, and the CBO had predicted 13 million by the end of this year, so adding immigrants newly eligible through Executive Amnesty will certainly help to salvage Obamacare numbers.
With the news this morning that Obama will announce Executive Action on immigration this coming Friday, it seems all the more likely that Executive Amnesty is tied to Obamacare. The White House has been mum about how many people have enrolled in the past few days of open enrollment season, suggesting that the number is low. An independent site, acasignups.net, back this assertion.
At this point, no one in the Administration even cares about the cost anymore. It’s all about saving the legislation from abomination, no matter the pricetag or method. That’s probably why the CBO has not even bothered to score the impact of Obamacare on the deficit since 2012 — before Obamacare even began to be fully implemented! Of course, it’s not like anyone really believes either by now that Obamacare won’t add to the deficit.
Therefore, if the numbers so far this year are not meeting even lowered expectations for enrollment, then it is imperative to get the numbers up NOW. That is why Obama has decided to act on Amnesty so soon after Obamacare signups just began again — so stay tuned for Friday, and pay attention to how the Executive action affects immigration and Obamacare.
