Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

There’s no doubt that we will be analyzing the new taxes created by the DemonRats in their evil socialized medicine scheme for decades.

Being buried in tax season work, I don’t have time to pore over the actual legislation. Of course, neither did anyone in Congress who voted for it; but they live on a different planet than we mere mortals inhabit.

I was grateful to receive the first of what I am assuming will be many analyses of this latest tax legislation from the good folks at TaxCoach.

Subject Line: Washington Reforms Health Care And Taxes

Sunday’s night’s health care bill will go down as one of those once-in-a-generation accomplishments. I’m not here to debate the merits of the bill – historians will still be doing that decades from now. But it’s important to point out some important tax changes included in the bill and the companion “reconciliation” bill now before the Senate. (Just how important are they? Well, the Congressional Budget Office says the IRS will need $10 billion and 17,000 new employees to enforce its share of the new rules!)

Here are some of the key tax provisions:

* Starting immediately, certain small businesses with less than 10 employees will get a 35% credit for the cost of providing employee health benefits.

* Starting in 2011, employers will have to report the value of health benefits on Form W2.

* The penalty tax for Health Savings Account distributions not used for health care expenses doubles from 10% to 20%. This will discourage using HSAs for supplemental retirement savings.

* Starting in 2013, the 7.5% floor for deducting medical and dental expenses climbs to 10% (unless you or your spouse are 65 or older, in which case it remains at 7.5% until 2016).

* Healthcare flexible spending account contributions are capped at $2,500 per year.

* Starting in 2014, businesses with more than 50 employees will have to offer heath benefits or pay a penalty of $750/employee.

The reconciliation bill includes one more unwelcome surprise. Currently, the Medicare tax is limited to 2.9% of earned income. The reconciliation bill imposes an additional Medicare tax of 0.9% on earned income above $200,000 (individuals) or $250,000 (families). It also adds a 3.8% “Unearned Income Medicare Contribution” on investment income – specifically, interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, capital gains, and rents – for taxpayers with Adjusted Gross Income above those same thresholds. Those new levies would take effect in 2013.

The complete bill is 1,018 pages, so it’s going to take some time to analyze. But we’ll be paying close attention as details become available. In the meantime, call us with any questions!

It’s good to see that some of the new taxes aren’t scheduled to take effect for a few more years; giving us time to plan for how to avoid or minimize them. I’m sure TaxCoach will be including a lot of tips on how to deal with these new taxes in their future updates.

Update: You can download an eight page pdf file with more detailed analysis of the new taxes from CCH.