More New Taxes and Fees: How You’ll Pay for Obamacare in 2014

Heritage Foundation, January 1, 2014

Obamacare contains 18 specific tax hikes, mandates, or penalties that cost Americans money, and three new ones take effect in 2014. This is only the beginning—watch how two of these taxes get worse in the years to come.

1. Individual Mandate Tax. The individual mandate is designed to strong-arm individuals into purchasing government-approved health insurance or facing a tax penalty. In 2014, the penalty for not purchasing insurance will be either $95 or 1 percent of annual income (whichever is greater). Very few, if any, people will end up paying just $95, because individuals with an annual income of only $9,500 or less would likely qualify for Medicaid or a hardship exemption from the mandate. The mandate increases drastically in coming years, rising to $325 or 2 percent of income in 2015, and $695 or 2.5 percent of income in 2016—whichever is greater.

2. Health Insurer Tax. One of the largest tax increases in the law is an annual fee imposed on health insurers based on their share of the market. It is estimated to raise $8 billion in 2014 alone. The tax will more than likely be passed on to consumers through premium increases. An actuarial analysis by the consulting firm Oliver Wyman projects that in 2014, this tax will increase premiums by 1.9 percent to 2.3 percent. And the impact will be greater in later years as the tax increases.

3. Reinsurance Fee. This fee isn’t included in the list of 18 tax hikes, but it’s another one that will impact the cost of insurance. Health insurers will have to pay the temporary fee on group health plans to help spread the cost of the covering those in the individual market, inside and outside Obamacare’s exchanges. The fee begins in 2014, costing $63 per covered person and decreasing in 2015 and 2016. Like most taxes and fees, the result will likely be higher insurance premiums.

Read the article!

Top 10 Obama anti-business, anti-job actions

President Obama loves to complain that he inherited an economic mess. That may be true, but his wrong-headed policies have only made matters worse, taking actions that hurt businesses and stunt job growth.

1. Obamacare costs

Obamacare will impose a new cost on many small businesses that currently do not provide health insurance for their employees and will pressure many to shift workers to part-time status to get below the measure’s “50-worker” loophole. It also means all companies will have to re-evaluate their health care coverage and make changes to come into compliance with federal guidelines or pay fines of up to $3,000 per worker. The Congressional Budget Office says the bill will lead to 800,000 fewer jobs by 2020.

2. Small business tax hikes


The expiration of the Bush tax cuts for individuals making over $200,000, or families making $250,000, will hit many small business owners, an increase that will hit as those same owners are still trying to dig out of the recession. Considering that small businesses are the main creator of jobs in the nation, every dollar taken from them in tax hikes is that many fewer dollars available for expanding employment.

3. EPA’s burdensome regulations

Regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency put a tremendous burden on businesses, making job creation more difficult. The agency’s rules on air quality standards are curtailing energy produced from coal-fired electrical plants, causing a rise in electricity prices and making scarce a major resource that is abundant in America.

CONTINUED:  http://www.humanevents.com/2012/10/06/top-10-obama-anti-business-anti-job-actions/

How Looming Tax Hikes Would Hit Typical Families

A variety of tax cuts enacted during the tenures of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama expire at the end of December. Expiring provisions include Bush-era cuts on wage and investment income and cuts for married couples and families with children. Also expiring is a 2 percentage point temporary payroll tax cut.


A look the tax increases facing typical families:

—A married couple with two children and an income of $100,000 would pay $7,935 in income taxes and $5,650 in payroll taxes this year, for a total federal tax burden of $13,585. Next year, they would face income taxes of $11,919 and payroll taxes of $7,650, for a total federal tax burden of $19,569, a total tax increase of $5,984.

CONTINUED:  http://cowboybyte.com/13139/how-looming-tax-hikes-would-hit-typical-families/

by Michelle Malkin on Monday, September 13, 2010

Obama jobs death toll watch: 150,000 more energy jobs in danger

Louisiana State University economist Joseph Mason has a new study on the jobs death toll damage that President Obama’s planned energy tax hikes will cause.

The Autumn of Wreckage is off to a fast start, eh?

Via the NYPost:

Just last week, President Obama explicitly targeted the industry for two massive tax hikes. First, he’d ban oil and gas companies from using the “Section 199″ tax credit, a measure for domestic manufacturers enacted in 2004 to boost US employment. (The Senate is set to vote this week on its version of the ban.) Second, he wants to end “dual capacity” protection for US energy firms.

Without this shield against double taxation on foreign revenues, American companies would be competing on an uneven global playing field. Again, Obama aims directly and specifically at the US oil and gas industry.

Yet, by the federal government’s own economic model, these tax hikes would lead to huge, immediate job losses. I ran the numbers through the Commerce Department’s RIMS II model; it shows, under the proposed changes to Section 199 and dual capacity, Americans would almost immediately lose more than 150,000 stable, private-sector jobs.

Because our energy firms operate as part of an integrated economy, as much as 38 percent of the job losses would come in professional fields, such as education, administration, health care, real estate and the arts. Another 21 percent would hit producers of necessities such as our food and textiles.

In other words, lawmakers would be slamming the very teachers, firemen and factory workers that they claim to want to help. And the fallout wouldn’t end there. Higher energy taxes would cost the US $341 billion in lost economic activity and $68 billion in wages over the next nine years.

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