The Obamacare Taxman Cometh (Again)

About half of the cost of
paying for Obamacare comes from new taxes. Some of those were
already in effect before this year, but some of them are kick in
for the first time this tax season. 

The latest and greatest Affordable Care Act revenue raisers
include an excise tax on medical devices, an increase in the
Medicare payroll tax from 2.8 to 3.8 percent for couples earning
more than $250,000 annually, and limits on flexible spending
accounts.

This chart
from the Heritage Foundation is slightly older, so its totals
aren’t quite up to the minute, but it gives you an idea of the tax
hikes included in the law, the dates they go into effect, and the
amount of revenue they are expected to raise. 

As you can see, the new taxes don’t end this year. There’s still
the “Cadillac tax” off in 2018, and the individual mandate penalty
which the Internal Revenue Service will start assessing in 2014. As
Sam Baker
reports in National Journal, next year is when things
really start to get interesting:

Next year’s filing will be the first time the Internal Revenue
Service enforces the law’s individual mandate, which requires most
taxpayers to either buy insurance or pay a penalty. There are
several exemptions, including a waiver for people who can’t afford
insurance.

Once the next filing season rolls around, most Americans will
have to do one of three things: prove they had insurance; prove
they qualified for an exemption; or pay a penalty—$95 or 1 percent
of their income, whichever is higher.

People who received tax credits to cover part of their premiums
will need to make sure the amount they received lines up with how
much they should have gotten based on their actual income.

“Right now [the subsidy] is based on a forecast of their income;
next year will be checking the forecast against reality,” said
Mitchell Fox, director of product management at TurboTax. “That
refund could go up or it could go down.”

President Obama is already getting in on the fun. He paid $2,310
in
Obamacare-related taxes for 2013.