Health Care Reform: Tax Hikes on the Way

[Chicopee John]

Health Care Reform: Tax Hikes on the Way

by Joan Pryde, Senior Tax Editor, the Kiplinger letters Tuesday, April 6, 2010

 

 

Here are 13 changes in the massive overhaul that could impact your tax bill, for better or worse.

 

The new health care reform law is chock-full of new taxes and tax increases that will affect many individuals and businesses, but it will be years before most of these hikes take a bite out of your -- or your company’s -- wallet. The law also has tax breaks to help both individuals and small businesses pay for insurance.

 

 

1. A new 10% excise tax on indoor tanning services on services provided after June 30, 2010.

 

2. The new law gives small firms tax credits as incentives to provide coverage, starting this tax year. Employers with 10 or fewer workers and average annual wages of less than $25,000 can receive a credit of up to 35% of their health premium costs each year through 2013. The credit is phased out for firms larger than that and disappears completely if a company has more than 25 employees or average annual wages of $50,000 or more. Beginning in 2014, small firms that sign up with one of the health exchanges to be created can receive a credit of up to 50% of their costs.

 

3. A requirement that businesses include the value of the health care benefits they provide to employees on W-2s, beginning with W-2s for 2011.

 

 

4. Elimination of a deduction employers now take for providing Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage to their retirees to the extent that the federal government subsidizes the coverage. This will not take effect until 2013.

 

5. Doubling the penalty for nonqualified distributions from health savings accounts, to 20%, beginning in 2011.

 

6. A limit on the amount that employees can contribute to health care flexible spending accounts to $2,500 a year, but the cap won't take effect until 2013.

 

7. A ban on using funds from flexible spending accounts, health reimbursement arrangements or health savings accounts for the cost of over-the-counter medications, starting in 2011.

 

8. Imposing a 0.9% Medicare surtax on wages of single taxpayers earning more than $200,000 a year and couples earning over $250,000, starting in 2013, as well as a 3.8% Medicare tax on their unearned income. The new law defines unearned income as interest, dividends, capital gains, annuities, royalties, and rents. Tax-exampt interest won’t be included, nor will income from retirement accounts.

 

9. A hike in the 7.5% floor on itemized deductions for medical expenses to 10%, beginning in 2013. But taxpayers age 65 and over are exempt from the cutback through 2016.

 

10. A new 40% excise tax, beginning in 2018, on high-cost health plans, levied on the portion that exceeds $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families.

 

11. A new tax on individuals who don't obtain adequate health coverage by 2014. The tax is be phased in over three years, starting at the greater of $95, or 1% of income, in 2014, and rising to the greater of $695, or 2.5% of income, in 2016.

 

12. Providing a refundable tax credit, once the individual mandate takes effect in 2014, to help low-income folks purchase coverage. To be eligible, a person's household income must be between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level, generally around $11,000 to $44,000 for singles and $22,000 to $88,000 for families.

 

13. A nondeductible fee charged to businesses with 50 or more employees if the firms fail to offer adequate coverage. The fee will equal $2,000 times the number of employees, though it won’t count the first 30 workers in that calculation.

 

Copyrighted, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc.

[calfoxwc]

5. Doubling the penalty for nonqualified distributions from health savings accounts, to 20%, beginning in 2011.

***********************************

Why the hell is this in there? If a person wants to use THEIR OWN SAVINGS to pay for a ..say...

 

knee replacement, and the gov says you aren't "qualified" (not black, and poor, and a member of ACORN or SEIU)

 

.... @@ ... that you get penalized for spending YOUR SAVINGS on what YOU and your DOCTOR KNOW YOU NEED?

 

We're going down a dangerous road.

 

This is part legit reform, the other part assisting with the Bolshevik revolution... or something...

[Chicopee John]

5. Doubling the penalty for nonqualified distributions from health savings accounts, to 20%, beginning in 2011.

***********************************

Why the hell is this in there? If a person wants to use THEIR OWN SAVINGS to pay for a ..say...

 

knee replacement, and the gov says you aren't "qualified" (not black, and poor, and a member of ACORN or SEIU)

 

.... @@ ... that you get penalized for spending YOUR SAVINGS on what YOU and your DOCTOR KNOW YOU NEED?

 

We're going down a dangerous road.

 

This is part legit reform, the other part assisting with the Bolshevik revolution... or something...

 

 

Some of these terms are technical and are not used in the casual sense.

 

There is such a thing as a Health Care Spending Accounts and Health Care Savings Accounts. I have a 'Spending' account and am not that familiar with the provisions of the Savings Accounts. They have nothing to do with personal savings outside of these accounts.

 

"Qualified" and "Nonqualified" are technical terms that pertain to tax implications (in a simplistic way). For example, Traditional IRAs are 'Qualified' because they are tax deferred and taxes are paid upon redemption. On the other hand, Roth IRAs are "non qualified" because tax obligations have already been met - any increase in value is tax exempt.

 

Sounds like you won't be impacted because you don't have a 'Health Care Savings Account'. I would advise you check with your financial advisor if you have one (I don't).

[calfoxwc]

Actually, I don't... I know a few folks that do. They won't be happy...

 

It just seems that to pay for a mega super-welfare state...

 

they will never be able to get enough money, no matter how many

 

ways and how many people they get it from.

[Herman M]

Doubling the penalty for nonqualified distributions from health savings accounts, to 20%, beginning in 2011

 

who determines what type of an account is qualified? will i be penalized for having my own savings account

[heckofajobbrownie]

5. Doubling the penalty for nonqualified distributions from health savings accounts, to 20%, beginning in 2011.

***********************************

Why the hell is this in there? If a person wants to use THEIR OWN SAVINGS to pay for a ..say...

 

knee replacement, and the gov says you aren't "qualified" (not black, and poor, and a member of ACORN or SEIU)

 

.... @@ ... that you get penalized for spending YOUR SAVINGS on what YOU and your DOCTOR KNOW YOU NEED?

 

We're going down a dangerous road.

 

This is part legit reform, the other part assisting with the Bolshevik revolution... or something...

 

That's not what this means, Cal. Not even close. You don't know what you're talking about.

 

you can withdraw money from your HSA for qualified medical expenses. If you withdraw money for things unrelated to your medical expenses - say, to go to the track - you get penalized 10%. Under the new law, that will go up to 20%.

 

Because these accounts are for medical expenses only. That's why they're called "Health Savings Accounts." Qualified medical expenses, such as a knee replacement, are what they're for. Buying a new couch is not what they're for, so you get penalized if you try to game the system that way. It's got absolutely nothing to do with what color you are, or if you're a union member, as you just suggested.

 

Feel better?

[heckofajobbrownie]

Doubling the penalty for nonqualified distributions from health savings accounts, to 20%, beginning in 2011

 

who determines what type of an account is qualified? will i be penalized for having my own savings account

 

No. Not at all. This has nothing to do with your savings account. It has to do with Health Savings Accounts, which are exempt from federal taxes. But in order to get those tax benefits, you have to spend the money on health care. Otherwise, you pay a penalty.

 

You can do whatever you want with you own money. But as soon as you decide to use a tax-exempt account sponsored by the federal government, you have to live under the rules of that account. Just like you have to live under the distribution rules of your IRA or your pension.

[Mr. T]

So the government gets to apply rules on how you spend your money by handing out stiffer penalties.

[calfoxwc]

Sorry, Heck, but you don't understand what you read.

 

If gov health care says you can't have an artificial knee because

 

you're one year away from their "recommended" age, then that

 

is NOT A QUALIFIED EXPENSE.

 

Don't be ignorant for a change, Heck. I know about the plans I could have

 

been a part of in the past. You can save the money for health expenses,

 

but the money cannot be used for other purposes outside of the medical reasons.

 

Submit for payment for couch, disallowed. Submit payment for any covered health expense

 

- allowed.

 

but with gov health care, it will be rationed, bureaucratically regulated to save $$$,

 

and the red tape can tax you using the medical expenses money when the gov doesn't

 

want you trying to get certain expensive procedures and clogging up the mess they will

 

have created?

 

sorry Heck - but you keep pretending you know what you're talking about only AFTER some of us

 

say anything. Then surely, you go away for a couple of days til you have time to research talking points

 

from your favorite Marxist site.

 

Not impressed am I.

[heckofajobbrownie]

So the government gets to apply rules on how you spend your money by handing out stiffer penalties.

 

No, not at all. The government doesn't tell you how to spend your health care dollar. You can do with it pretty much however you please.

 

But when you take part in a government savings program, which is what Heath Savings Accounts are, you have to use that money on health care services. You can't use it on things like a mountain bike. Or else you pay a penalty.

 

They're much like IRAs, which are government-sponsored tax-exempt plans for retirement. These are government-sponsored tax-exempt savings plans for health care expenses.

 

With an IRA, you can't take out the money before a certain age, or else you pay a penalty. Same idea here.

 

You guys aren't making any sense. The government set up health savings accounts in 2003. They're a Republican idea, pushed for and signed into law by George Bush. When he signed the law, they included a penalty for people who used the tax-exempt benefit for something other than health care expenses. All this does is up the penalty. Because you can't take advantage of a program set up to help people afford health care costs and then use the system to pay for things other than health care. If you're going to use the money on whatever you please, what's the point of calling them Heath Savings Accounts? You might as well call them Tax Loophole Accounts.

 

It's really not anything to get worked up over. I know you do that automatically, but try switching it off. Your life will be so much more pleasant.

 

Honestly, I can't see why you dopes are arguing this. Even Cal seems to have realized he didn't know what he was talking about, and has moved on to pretending he was talking about something else. And even that is a scenario that doesn't exist, and would never exist.

 

Honestly, I can't spend another minute of my Sunday explaining basic shit to you two. If you don't believe me, read what John wrote. Or Wiki it.

 

Learn something. Anything. Please.

[Mr. T]

And your source is?

 

 

Almost everyone knows what a hc savings plan is. but what John wrote is that their will be a 20% penalty if you withdrawl it for any other reason.

 

+ cal mad e a great point also on government time lines, if you need a knee replacement you could be held at the governments mercy to how it will be paid for and when it can be done.

 

It pretty much tells us that health care will be rationed. And you think this is a good thing?

 

The government is making more demands and in return we are going to see less health care freedoms.

 

No wonder the majority of the country disagrees with you and your beloved socialist party of obammanoids.

 

 

[heckofajobbrownie]

T, you're not a bright guy, but there's an old saying that you shouldn't believe everything you read. It's the same reason why posting something someone from somewhere wrote about something doesn't "prove" or back up what you believe. It just shows there's another individual out there who is as laughably clueless as you are.

 

My source is, you know, the real world. Where the stable, employable people reside. My source is knowing what's actually in the programs we're talking about, rather than getting my information about them from lunatic chain emails and fringe websites.

 

I really can't spend anymore of my time explaining simple things to you, things you could easily look up on your own, but aren't sentient enough of a being to know where to look.

 

PS - Cal's point has nothing to do with a discussion about health savings accounts, and it's a fantasy anyway. I know you think it's "great", but that's because if you add up both your IQ points you get Joe Thomas' jersey number.

[calfoxwc]

sorry, Heck Asswipe, but it was a fact that the plan I could have entered into, where I used to work

 

for ten years, was exactly that - you could ONLY use those funds for MEDICAL PURPOSES ONLY.

 

I could prove that, numbnuts, if I could locate the former VP who might remember the situation.

 

I didn't enter into the plan, because if you did NOT USE the money, ...... it goes to the hc provider,

 

and you would LOSE that money.

 

I figured that was pretty stupid, and most of us bailed.

 

How can you possibly deny that it's true, Heck? Were you there, stupid?

 

NO.

 

It's been some years now, but I can only speak of my previous experiences.

 

So, once again, Heck gives himself a wedgie, and turns any discussion into a personal attack crusade,

 

and blames the rest of us for being a pain in the arse...

 

Hey Heck, LEARN how to freakin read and think. Your phoney arrogance is screwing you over.

 

Stop blaming everybody else for you being a pomous, angry, sissy little nitwilly.

 

Not very becoming, "Napoleon".

 

(and take that Obamao puppet off of your head, you look like a fool)

[Mr. T]

So what you are saying Heck, is that you are pulling all of these statements you make out of your ass. And that the majority of the time it is all opinion based.

 

Tell us why should anyone listen to you?

 

You really are dumb and dont have a clue, you sound like a parrot of Chris Matthews.

 

Do you sit around with msnbc on 24/7? Because you are logged in the whole time chicken hawking over anything to do with HC.