Posted on 01/19/2015 9:25:09 AM PST by servo1969
“Now that the Affordable Care Act has made health care a tax issue, no one can understand it,” H&R Block flatly tells taxpayers in a video that resides on its dedicated Obamacare web site.
A former IRS Commissioner agrees, and cautions that the new tax requirements will be a “shock to the system,” especially afflicting low-income earners who have never itemized on their tax return.
The tax preparation giant — with 24 million tax clients worldwide — reports that the Obamacare tax rules now constitute “the biggest tax code change in the last 20 years.”
The company is so concerned, it has launched a high profile national television advertising campaign directed solely at Obamacare enrollees. The ads were first broadcast the weekend of Jan. 10 during the NFL playoffs.
Illustrating H&R Block’s point is IRS Publication 5187, which attempts to explain to taxpayers how to comply with the new Obamacare tax requirements. That publication runs for a total of 21 single-spaced pages.
This year, for the first time, taxpayers will feel the full weight of the Obamacare tax rules, which were enacted in 2010. The new tax code regulations will apply to all Americans who file 2014 tax returns.
Some Obamacare users may discover that they need to repay the government for the subsidies they received to cover their health insurance premiums. A few will discover they were not entitled to insurance at all.
Other taxpayers also will find their refunds are smaller, due to penalties incurred because they didn’t enroll in a government-approved health plan.
Penalties for non-compliance with Obamacare have tripled since 2013, from $95 to an average of $301, according to an email to The Daily Caller from software giant Intuit which runs TurboTax, a competitor to H&R Block.
A large percentage of Obamacare enrollees are low-income earners who opted for the program because they qualified for government subsidies that would lower their monthly insurance payments.
H&R Block’s Tax Institute found in a national survey released last fall that nearly three out of four low-income earners were not aware of the need to file anything with the IRS because of their Obamacare insurance.
“Lower-income respondents (72%) are significantly less likely than other income brackets to be aware of the law,” the Institute reported.
Former IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson, now vice chairman of Alliantgroup, warns the new Obamacare requirements will deliver a “shock to the system.”
“Low income filers are not used to itemizing and it will be a big challenge for them,” he noted in an interview with TheDC. “You’re introducing a whole new level of complexity.”
Grace Marie Turner, president of the non-profit Galen Institute and a critic of Obamacare, calls the new IRS filing requirements “a nightmare.”
“People don’t even know that they have to comply with this law through their tax filing,” she said in an interview with TheDC.
At the heart of the Obamacare tax rules are three new IRS health-related forms.
One is Form 1095, which will be sent to the estimated seven million Obamacare enrollees who received a federal subsidy.
Turner warned that many who will receive Form 1095 are likely to throw it out. “Many will think it’s junk mail.”
To prove they were entitled to subsidies, recipients will have to fill out a second document, Form 8962.
Mark Jaeger, a tax team leader at the software company Tax Act, which competes with H&R Block, says Obamacare recipients will be “most definitely” confused by Form 8962.
“If they’re trying to do it on their own doing, and do it by hand, that’s going to be pretty difficult for the user,” he told TheDC.
Turner agrees. “Millions of people who were used to doing a simple 1040 EZ form are going to be required, now, to fill out this complicated 8962 tax form.”
“H&R Block: ‘No One Can Understand’ New Obamacare Tax Code except us.”
It’s the Amateur Hour starring barack Hussein Obama.
Yeah, concerned that people will do their own taxes by hand or with TurboTax.
I was talking to a woman in her early 60's last fall. She was laid off last spring. I asked what she was doing for healthcare. She said she was going without. Couldn't afford it and didn't know anything about ACA and didn't have a computer either. It kind of makes me wonder how many people there are completely in the dark until they file their taxes.
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
My brother who retired from the IRS after 35 years of answering tax questions said this will be a major problem. Wait times will be in the hours if you can get thru at all and since most of the old timers in the call center retired you will get flunkies who can barely answer the phone at all.
..and then along came Hillary with the fix: SINGLE PAYER!
And if you use TurboTax be careful of the version you buy.
Go the the Wall Street Journal Article entitled "TurboTax Triggers Revolt" by Laura Saunders.
You have to buy Premium or better to do Cap Gains for starters....
You realize that will be all over the world in about 24 hours..
funniest, thing, ever.....
Every one of the Gruber Party that voted for this needs to be put out next election, let the cleansing process continue!
H and R Block was a huge supporter of Obamacare and pushed hard for it’s passage because they knew it would be a cash cow for them. Despicable.
Here's a website with reviews of FreeTaxUSA. The reviews posted are mixed. Not trying to knock the product, but not everyone's had a good experience with them.
NIX IT, DON’T FIX IT!
or use the H&R Block software like I do.
That's cool, but lots of people have encountered problems with the company's performance -- as in not filing their returns with the IRS -- even though they correctly followed the instructions and prompts at the site.
In fairness, others have had no issues with the site.
As with most things these days, 'caveat emptor'.
Even the bum under the bridge who earns no income must file a Tax return or be in
violation of Federal law which could bring Years of Prison into their life.
And anybody who tells me different is full of crap.
This is one of those laws the Feds will not enforce until such a time they
actually can take over the Country and ditch the Constitution.
A Set-up law, one cog in the machine of Communism looking
to disarm the Country by creating criminals. A slow disease.
Will tax preparer’s also have to use Common Core math to figure how to fill out the returns?
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