Tax penalty to hit nearly 6M uninsured people

[JustSomeGuy]

Nearly 6 million Americans — significantly more than first estimated— will face a tax penalty under President Barack Obama's health overhaul for not getting insurance, congressional analysts said Wednesday. Most would be in the middle class...

...The budget office said most of the increase in its estimate is due to changes in underlying projections about the economy, incorporating the effects of new federal legislation, as well as higher unemployment and lower wages.

Imagine that!

 

[waltky]

Fine to be imposed for uninsured kids...

IRS: Parents Must Pay Federal Fine for Uninsured Kids
January 31, 2013 – In new, final regulations issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said that parents must pay a federal fine under Obamacare if their children or dependent spouses are uninsured for any part of the year.

The regulations clarify provisions of Obamacare that seem to say that a parent will be held liable for Obamacare’s individual mandate penalty if they don’t have insurance coverage for their children. In its final regulations, the IRS states that parents will be made to pay the penalty (called a "shared responsibility payment") if they can claim an uninsured child or spouse as a dependent, regardless of whether they actually claim them or not. “The proposed regulations clarify that a taxpayer is liable for the shared responsibility payment imposed with respect to any individual for a month in a taxable year for which the taxpayer may claim a personal exemption deduction for the individual (that is, the dependent) for that taxable year,” the regulations state. “Whether the taxpayer actually claims the individual as a dependent for the taxable year does not affect the taxpayer's liability for the shared responsibility payment for the individual.”

In other words, if a child goes without government-defined health insurance coverage for any month of the year, their parent must pay a fine to the government, regardless of whether they claim the child as a dependent or not. The only thing that matters to the IRS is whether the parent could claim the uninsured child as a dependent. The same rule applies to an uninsured spouse if the couple files a single tax return. If they file a joint return, both parents are liable for the fine. The IRS calls this arrangement a “shared responsibility family,” and it includes adopted children. Parents who give their children up for adoption or place them in foster care are not liable for the penalty once they give up their children. However, they are still liable for the penalty for the months before they gave up their children.

The regulations also state that even if the parent is exempt from the Obamacare penalty, they can still be fined for not having insurance for their children. Under the law, people who are on Medicaid or who have income below the federal poverty line are exempt from the individual mandate, for example. Broadly, Obamacare says that the penalty for not having insurance is the lesser of the cheapest government-approved health insurance plan premium or the alternative, calculated penalty. The IRS regulations lay out how families can calculate this alternative penalty amount. Uninsured adult family members use the full per-person cost of $695 per person when calculating their penalty, while uninsured children are penalized half of the adult cost – $347.50 per child. The amount of penalty parents may face will change every year after 2016, the IRS said, and parents will face a phased-in penalty between 2014 and 2016.

For 2014, parents could face a penalty of either $47.50 per child – under 18 – up to $285 total. For 2015, the per-child penalty is $162.50 per child up to $975 total. For 2016, the per-child penalty is $347.50 per child up to $2,085 total. The per-person penalty is capped at $2,085 for 2016, but that cap will rise with inflation every year thereafter. While the per-person penalty is capped each year, families can still owe more if their income is high enough because the law states that families must pay the greater of either the per-person penalty of 2.5 percent of their taxable income. In the regulations, the IRS gives an example of just such a family. This family has five members – two parents and three children – and has a pre-tax income of $120,000. The IRS assumes that the minimum insurance premium for this family will be $20,000 per year in 2016, meaning that they will either pay the per-person cap of $2,085 or 2.5 percent of their taxable income.

MORE

See also:

White House to Illegals: No Obamacare with Legal Status
January 31, 2013 – The White House is in agreement with Sen. Marco Rubio’s assertion that if illegal immigrants are granted legal status, they will not be eligible for Obamacare, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

CNSNews.com asked, “Marco Rubio has said that he would want to prohibit those who are on a pathway to legal status from being eligible for the Affordable Care Act. Is that something the president would consider as part of this?”

Carney responded, “I think we’ve been very clear that legal status does not confer benefits through the Affordable Care Act, so I’m not sure, that sounds like a point of agreement, not disagreement.” Rubio, a Florida Republican, was among a group of three other GOP senators and four Democratic senators this week who announced their support for a “pathway to citizenship” for the at least 11 million illegal aliens in the country now.

He made additional news on Tuesday when he said during an interview with talk radio host Rush Limbaugh that gaining legal status could not mean benefits under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. “According to the law today, if you are a lawfully present in the country but you are not a green card holder, you do not qualify for any federal benefits. That's existing law,” Rubio said during the Limbaugh interview. “And so that means that the folks that are going to be in this probationary stage that's in our principles, they don't qualify for any federal benefits except for one, Obamacare,” Rubio continued. “Obamacare is the only federal benefit where you qualify for it, not because you have a green card but only because you're lawfully present. That issue needs to be resolved because if Obamacare is available to 11 million people, it blows a hole in our budget and makes this bill undoable. That's one of the major issues we're going have to confront,” he added.

Source

 

[DiamondDave]

But the uber-libs on here SWORE there would be no such thing with Obamacare...

 

[Claudette]

Wait till those 21 new taxes in the ACA kick in.

I can hear the screaming now.

Who knows. The impact of that may kick the Dems right the hell out of Congress.

 

[tjvh]

Over a hundred views on this thread, and only three responses to the OP... I guess some people on Obama's side don't have much to say about the OP... No surprise.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

They're probably formulating a group response whereby the try to tell us how it is all Bush's fault.

 

[DiamondDave]

They're probably formulating a group response whereby the try to tell us how it is all Bush's fault.

It's because the government spent less
It's because of ATM's
It's because of hurricane Sandy
It's Booooooooosssshhhhhhh
It is because Republicans have caused 438245% of all governmental debt, erasing the eleventy Bajillian that the dems made in surplus
It's because the rich don't pay enough
Did I mention it is because of Booooooooooossssshhhhhhh??