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.”
LOL, she’ll be adding weigh stations to the front of school cafeterias next.
The dollar will be wrecked before single-payer can even be put into any kind of law, the way things are being run.
Anything that makes Americans hate their government is a good thing! At least until noon 20 January 2017.
I claim 2 on my W-4 all year to make sure that I won’t owe anything at years end. Recently we did an estimate and it is predicting we will owe over $1500 when we are claiming 4 deductions. How is that possible?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.