The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR3962: the Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009. The legislation is a large number of pages long, making it difficult for regular taxpayers to comprehend how the bill will affect them.
Tax Penalties
The new legislation is incredibly expensive, and Congress has created a number of ways to pay for it. First of all, you will see a shared responsibility provision that truly forces taxpayers who cannot establish acceptable medical coverage to cover one more 2.5% tax. There will likely be a hardship exception though, for taxpayers who cannot afford to pay the tax.
Payroll Penalty
In addition to some penalty on taxpayers who can't afford coverage, the federal government will likely assess an 8% payroll tax on companies that tend not to offer medical health insurance for their employees. However, it really is widely expected that the penalty will disappear to 5% in the event the Senate revises the check.
Millionaire Surtax
One with the largest causes of funding for that reform bill is often a new surtax on individuals making more than $500,000 annually, of couples making over $1 million. In the House's bill, starting in 2010 all taxpayers building a qualifying amount will likely be subject to your massive 5.4% tax increase.
Inflation Increases
In addition to adding heft tax increases, the bill also partially repeals tax indexing for inflation. This will result in more money to the Federal government as the years pass. According to the Joint Tax Committee the surcharge is just anticipated to generate $30.9 billion this year, but nearly $70 billion in 2019.
Passage into Law?
The present version of the bill is not likely to acquire passed into law. Despite President Obama's optimistic stance, some Senators are already pronouncing into your market dead on arrival. Although there has become a lots of discussion about it medical reform bill, it may be months before obviously any good highly amended version from it becomes law. The Senate will not vote on into your market until at least 2010, and since they're supposed to make numerous modifications it will likely have to come back to the House for another vote. It could be 6 months from now before a medical care bill would go to President Obama's desk for any signature.