The IRS Will Enforce The Obama Healthcare Bill

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By Vicki Needham - 03/18/10 03:22 PM ET

House Ways and Means Republicans on Thursday assailed a provision in the proposed health care reform bill under consideration this week.
Subcommittee on Oversight ranking member Charles Boustany (R-La.) said the IRS provision in the bill "dangerously expands, in an ominous way the tentacles of the IRS and it's reach into every American family," he said today during a press conference.
"This is a vast expanse of power," he said.
Boustany said the bill would allow the IRS to confiscate refunds if there are penalties for not buying health care.
Lawmakers have questioned whether the IRS can handle the increased workload to oversee, administer and collect penalties for people who don't buy health insurance.
"This is increasing tax liability and tax scrutiny," said Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.).
Ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said many Americans have already rejected the call for health care reform for other reasons and an expansion of the IRS should only add to call to "kill the bill."
Taxpayers could be required to buy insurance under President Barack Obama?s reform proposal by 2014 or face penalties of roughly $325 per individual that the IRS would collect.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/87697-republicans-assail-irs-provision-in-health-care-bill-?page=21

 

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Re: The IRS Will Enforce The Obama Healthcare Bill

Dems draw up final health bill, set for vote Sunday

March 19, 2010
excerpts:

Many of the major insurance reforms begin in 2014, including provisions requiring most Americans for the first time to purchase insurance, and face penalties if they don't.

-snip-
Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee warned that the bill could require the IRS to hire 16,000 additional agents to enforce the new rules.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/now_the_TVLRWxc94TliCHb1UBYeBJ
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Re: The IRS Will Enforce The Obama Healthcare Bill

Ways and Means Republicans? Report: Democrats? Health Care Bill Contains Massive Expansion of IRS?s Power ​

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Thursday, March 18, 2010
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<!-- -------------- Links ----------------------> <table class="middlecopy" style="text-align: justify;" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td>

</td></tr></tbody></table> <!-- -------------- Links End ----------------------> Washington, DC ? Today, Ways and Means Republicans released a new report detailing how the Democrats? health care bill vastly expands the responsibilities of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and strengthens the heavy hand of the IRS in dealing with taxpayers.

?If the Democrats? health care bill becomes law, the IRS could have to hire more than 16,000 additional agents, auditors and other workers just to enforce all the new taxes and penalties,? said Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI). ?It is a dangerous expansion of the IRS?s power and reach into the lives of virtually every American.?

Highlights of report, which is entitled ?The Wrong Prescription: Democrats? Health Overhaul Dangerously Expands IRS Authority,? include:

• IRS agents verify if you have ?acceptable? health care coverage;
  
• IRS has the authority to fine you up to $2,250 or 2 percent of your income (whichever is greater) for failure to prove that you have purchased ?minimum essential coverage;?
  
• IRS can confiscate your tax refund;
  
• IRS audits are likely to increase;
  
• IRS will need up to $10 billion to administer the new health care program this decade;
  
• IRS may need to hire as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans; and
  
• Nearly half of all these new individual mandate taxes will be paid by Americans earning less than 300 percent of poverty ($66,150 for a family of four.)

The Republicans noted that despite all these new mandates on Americans, the Democrats prohibit the IRS from imposing these same taxes and penalties on illegal immigrants.

The full report can be viewed here.


http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=176997

 

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Re: The IRS Will Enforce The Obama Healthcare Bill

From the pdf in Post #3:

Disturbingly, the IRS would be in charge of verifying that every American taxpayer has
obtained acceptable health coverage for every month of the year. If the IRS determines that
a taxpayer lacks acceptable insurance for even a single month, then the IRS would impose a
new tax on that taxpayer, even auditing the taxpayer and could assess interest and penalties on
top of the tax. This is an unprecedented new role for the IRS ? one that will inject the IRS even
further into the lives of American families.
-snip-
THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE TAX
The Democrats? bill would add a new section 5000A to the Internal Revenue Code. Subsection
(a) of section 5000A would require that practically every American taxpayer obtain health
insurance that qualifies as ?minimum essential coverage.? Subsection (f) would define
?minimum essential coverage? as one of ten types of health insurance:
1. Medicare
2. Medicaid
3. SCHIP
4. TRICARE for Life
5. Veterans? health care
6. A health program for Peace Corps volunteers
7. Eligible employer-sponsored plans
8. Individual market plans offered through State Exchanges
9. Grandfathered health plans
10. Other types of health insurance deemed acceptable by the Secretary of Health and Human
Services and the Secretary of the Treasury.
An ?eligible employer-sponsored plan? generally means a group health plan that provides
medical care and is offered by an employer to an employee that meets certain requirements under
current law and those yet to be determined by the federal bureaucrats.2

 

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Re: The IRS Will Enforce The Obama Healthcare Bill

[more from the pdf, post #3]

AMOUNT OF TAX
Taxpayers who fail to prove to the IRS that they had maintained ?minimum essential coverage?
during each month of the year would have to pay a new IMT when they file their federal income
tax returns. The IMT would be phased in over a period of several years, going into full effect in
2016 and beyond. For 2016, the IMT would equal the greater of?

$750 per person (up to a maximum of $2,250 per household),6 or

2% of household income.7
The IMT, however, could not exceed the national average premium for qualified health plans
that provide a ?bronze? level of coverage.8 The $750 and $2,250 amounts would be indexed for
inflation after 2016. ?Household income? would mean ?modified gross income?, which would
be a measure of income narrower than gross income but broader than adjusted gross income. The
IMT would apply on a monthly basis: taxpayers would pay 1/12th of the amount calculated under
the rules above for each month of the year that they do not satisfy the ?minimum essential
coverage? requirement.
Certain exceptions would apply. For instance, a hardship exemption provides that a taxpayer
would not have to pay the IMT if the taxpayer?s share of health insurance premiums exceeds 8%
of income. The Democrats? bill also would provide exemptions for religious conscience,
members of a health care sharing ministry, those below the poverty line, members of Indian
tribes, incarcerated individuals, and ? as discussed below ? illegal aliens.

 

[Commonground]

Re: The IRS Will Enforce The Obama Healthcare Bill

more from the pdf at Post #3:

ADDITIONAL EXPANSIONS OF IRS POWERS
Beyond the individual mandate tax, the Democrats? bill would delegate substantial authority to
the IRS to enforce and administer numerous other critical components of the nation?s health
insurance system. This report, however, does not investigate in detail the other opportunities
Democrats give the IRS to interfere in Americans? lives. These additional powers would include
(but are not limited to):

Assessing new taxes and penalties on employers for failing to offer ?affordable? (as
defined by the federal government) health insurance;

Sending nearly one-half trillion dollars in tax collections directly to health insurance
companies;

Verifying information on small businesses (including wage levels, number of employees,
etc.);

Revealing otherwise confidential taxpayer information to the Department of Health and
Human Services; and

Expanding oversight of not-for-profit hospitals to ensure they live up to their ?charitable
missions? by doing a ?charitable needs assessment? once every three years.