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The IRS said this week it is delaying the start of the tax filing season, leading Republicans to argue that the agency is putting its focus on implementing Obamacare at the expense of helping average taxpayers. The IRS blamed the government shutdown, saying that when it furloughed 90 percent of its employees it lost too many work days to begin processing returns on time in January. But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said the IRS this year was able to begin processing returns on time despite major changes to tax laws in the "fiscal cliff" deal Congress...

The IRS's share of ObamaCare implementation is "going fine," the director of the tax agency's implementation office said Wednesday. Implementing the healthcare law falls mainly to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and the IRS. Technical problems have plagued HHS's rollout of new insurance exchanges. But Sarah Hall Ingram, the director of the IRS's Affordable Care Act office, told a House panel Wednesday that the IRS hasn't experienced similar problems. "The portion of the responsibilities the IRS is in charge of is going fine," Hall Ingram said. Hall Ingram previously led the IRS office that has been accused of...

That amount – $328 per month – is the national average for the mid-tier “silver” premium based on HHS calculations for approved plans in 48 states. The challenge, of course, is that like all of healthcare itself, your mileage will vary. Both individual and family insurance rates will vary dramatically based on a host of variables. Those variables – age, marital status, geographic location and income – will each have a significant impact on the final monthly amount. The most difficult single component in the equation is income – which determines the amount of Federal subsidy any given taxpayer will...

A series of leaked emails authored by House Speaker John Boehner’s chief of staff Mike Sommers shows Boehner may have coordinated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to exempt Congress from Obamacare. The emails were leaked Tuesday by Reid chief of staff David Krone, who actually has a history of this sort of thing.

IBD Editorials Viewpoint Under ObamaCare, Doctor's Visits Will Be Interrogations By BETSY MCCAUGHEY Posted 09/13/2013 06:18 PM ET If you think the Obama health law is only for the uninsured and you won't be affected, you're in for a surprise next time you go to the doctor. Be prepared for questions unrelated to why you are seeking medical help — questions that you don't want to answer. Whether you're at the dermatologist or the cardiologist, you'll likely be asked: "Are you sexually active? If so, with one partner, multiple partners or same-sex partners?" Doctors are being turned into government agents,...

In the just-released Spring 2013 issue of Harvard Health Policy Review, I have an article titled “ObamaCare: The Plot Thickens.” The article examines the IRS rule that purportedly implements ObamaCare’s tax credits, but actually violates that statute by taxing, borrowing, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars contrary to Congress’ explicit instructions. The article is a less-technical version of my Health Matrix article (coauthored with Jonathan Adler, “Taxation Without Representation: The Illegal IRS Rule to Expand Tax Credits Under the PPACA.”) Here’s an excerpt: In broad daylight, the Internal Revenue Service is attempting to tax, borrow, and spend [roughly] $800 billion—contrary to...

The House voted Friday to prevent the IRS from enforcing any aspect of ObamaCare, a bill meant to exact revenge against an agency that Republicans say is incapable of neutral enforcement of the law. Members approved the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act in a 232-185 vote. Four Democrats supported the bill along with every Republican. The vote capped off several days of work in the House on bills aimed at reining in government regulation and government overreach. House Democrats cast the votes as merely for show, given opposition from the White House and the Senate majority. The...

The Internal Revenue Service includes an estimated 106,000 agents and employees. The Treasury Department allocated $11.522 billion to the agency for operations in 2009. Thanks to Obamacare the agency is expected to hire from 11,800 to 16,500 new agents. That means the IRS will have from 117,800 to 122,500 after Obamacare is implemented. The IRS has more agents than the German (62,279), Spanish (75,000) and Canadian (68,250) armies. The Family Research Counsel also points out these shocking facts: ** The IRS has its own SWAT team. ** It has its own intelligence unit. ** And it has more agents than...

OBAMACARE DATABASE WORSE THAN NSA SNOOPING http://rare.us/story/move-over-nsa-here-comes-the-obamacare-big-brother-database/ Would you trust thousands of low-level Federal bureaucrats and contractors with one-touch access to your private financial and medical information? Under Obamacare you won’t have any choice. As the Obamacare train-wreck begins to gather steam, there is increasing concern in Congress over something called the Federal Data Services Hub. The Data Hub is a comprehensive database of personal information being established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the federally facilitated health insurance exchanges. The purpose of the Data Hub, according to a June 2013 Government Accountability Office (GAO)...

Would you trust thousands of low-level Federal bureaucrats and contractors with one-touch access to your private financial and medial information? Under Obamacare you won’t have any choice. As the Obamacare train-wreck begins to gather steam, there is increasing concern in Congress over something called the Federal Data Services Hub. The Data Hub is a comprehensive database of personal information being established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the federally facilitated health insurance exchanges. The purpose of the Data Hub, according to a June 2013 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, is to provide “electronic, near real-time...

House to Vote on Bill Prohibiting IRS Enforcement of Obamacare Michael Warren July 9, 2013 1:20 PM The House of Representatives will take up a bill that would stop the Department of the Treasury, including the Internal Revenue Services, from implementing and enforcing the provisions of Obamacare. The bill, authored by Georgia Republican Tom Price and co-sponsored by 114 other House members, is just two pages long and claims its purpose is to "prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury from enforcing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010." Section 3...

Allow me to introduce the Obamacare Federal Data Services Hub. It will eventually control your life. All of it. The Health and Human Services Department earlier this year exposed just how vast the government's data collection efforts will be on millions of Americans as a result of ObamaCare. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., asked HHS to provide "a complete list of agencies that will interact with the Federal Data Services Hub." The Hub is a central feature of ObamaCare, since it will be used by the new insurance exchanges to determine eligibility for benefits, exemptions from the federal mandate, and how...

A new rule issued late Friday requires state, federal and local agencies as well as health insurers to swap the protected personal health information of anybody seeking to join the new health care program that will be enforced by the Internal Revenue Service. Personal health information, or PHI, is highly protected under federal law, but the latest ruling from the Department of Health and Human Services allows agencies to trade the information to verify that Obamacare applicants are getting the minimum amount of health insurance coverage they need from the health "exchanges." The ruling, explained on pages 72-73 of the...

The power granted to the IRS to enforce ObamaCare’s mandates, taxes, penalties, reporting, and other requirements is unprecedented. Based upon Government Accountability Office data, we count 46 new responsibilities assigned to the IRS under the health law.1 IRS officials have acknowledged the huge problems these major new responsibilities will create for the agency. On March 5, 2013, an official from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration, J. Russell George, testified before the House Appropriations Committee. Mr. George was asked about the tax implications of ObamaCare. “It is unprecedented in recent history, the amount of responsibility the IRS is...

Americans already are fearful and confused about the sweeping changes that ObamaCare will inflict, and the widening IRS scandal deepens concerns about the agency’s major role in implementing and enforcing the health overhaul law. The authority granted to the IRS over ObamaCare’s mandates, taxes, penalties, reporting, and other requirements is unprecedented. Based upon Government Accountability Office data, we count 46 new responsibilities assigned to the IRS. The IRS is directed to collect more than $1 trillion in taxes to fund the law, distribute trillions of dollars of subsidies, enforce compliance with the law’s many mandates, and collect information on citizens’...

Mounting scandals at the Internal Revenue Service are jeopardizing critical funding for the agency as it gears up to play a big role in President Barack Obama's health care law. Obama sought a significant budget increase for the IRS for next year, when the agency will start doling out subsidies to help people buy health insurance on state-based exchanges. Congressional Republicans, however, see management problems at the IRS as an opportunity to limit the agency's funding just as it is trying to put in place the massive new law. Republicans have been fighting the health care law ever since Democrats...

The Internal Revenue Service has never been an agency much loved by the American people. With the IRS's targeting of conservative groups, its already bad reputation has now sunk to a new low. But the scandal raises a critical question: If the IRS can't manage an increase of 1,700 applications for tax-exempt status that the agency said spurred its targeting of conservative groups, how will the IRS handle its massive new role in implementing ObamaCare? Look at the Earned Income Tax Credit. Whether you like this refundable credit or not, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration reported in...

Ms. Faulkner is worth two billion dollars. More than 40% of the U.S. population will have its medical information stored in an Epic digital medical record by 2013. Clients include many of the country’s top hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and Cedars-Sinai. Faulkner largely shuns the press and leads a modest lifestyle.” From Real Clear Politics: Who is Judy Faulkner? Chances are, you don’t know her — but her politically connected, taxpayer-subsidized electronic medical records company may very well know you. Top Obama donor and billionaire Faulkner is founder and CEO of Epic Systems, which will soon store...

They stole 60,000,000 medical records – And won’t give them back. Last week news broke that the IRS was facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges. In a case involving solely a tax matter involving a former employee of the company, these agents stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000 Americans, including at least 1,000,000 Californians. The lawsuit by John Doe Company against 15 John Doe IRS agents is seeking punitive damages for constitutional violations,...

A healthcare provider has sued the Internal Revenue Service and 15 of its agents, charging they wrongfully seized 60 million medical records from 10 million Americans. The name of the provider is not yet known, United Press International said. But Courthouse News Service said the suit claims the agency violated the Fourth Amendment in 2011, when agents executed a search warrant for financial data on one employee – and that led to the seizure of information on 10 million, including state judges. The search warrant did not specify that the IRS could take medical information, UPI said. And information technology...