One of the big new taxes kicking in this year is the ObamaCare mandate tax – a tax the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will impose on and collect from individuals who do not pay for health coverage under ObamaCare exchanges or the private insurance markets.
To “explain” how the tax will be computed and collected, the IRS has written 21 pages of Obamacare tax instructions – with links to three long forms and nine tip sheets – that individuals must follow to make sure they “pay their fair share” of healthcare costs in President Barack Obama’s brave new world of universal healthcare.
Most notably, the IRS has created a new power to collect ObamaCare taxes called the “Shared Responsibility Payment” doctrine – a concept geared to those who have Obamacare or who owe a fine for refusing to get health insurance.
The IRS form gives examples of how much those without insurance owe – starting with a single male earning $40,000 a year owing $298.50 a month to cover their healthcare premium.
That’s right. For each month of the year, the individual “shared responsibility payment” provision calls for individuals to have qualifying health care coverage (also called minimum essential coverage)… qualify for an exemption from coverage… or make an individual shared responsibility payment when filing their federal income tax return.
It gets worse.
Under the “shared responsibility payment” provision, a taxpayer is potentially liable for him or herself and for any individual the taxpayer could claim as a dependent for federal income tax purposes.
That means the primary taxpayer (e.g., parents) who can claim a child as a dependent for federal income tax purposes will generally owe an individual “shared responsibility payment” for the child.
With the IRS making up powers on its own, changing them at will and applying them arbitrarily there is no telling how much individual taxpayers will be required to pay from year to year to cover the costs of ObamaCare.
