Of the twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare, below are the five worst that will be foisted upon Americans for the first time on January 1, 2013:
The Obamacare Medical Device Tax – a $20 billion tax increase: Medical device manufacturers employ 409,000 people in 12,000 plants across the country. Obamacare imposes a new 2.3 percent excise tax on gross sales – even if the company does not earn a profit in a given year. In addition to killing small business jobs and impacting research and development budgets, this will increase the cost of your health care – making everything from pacemakers to prosthetics more expensive.
The Obamacare “Special Needs Kids Tax” – a $13 billion tax increase: The 30-35 million Americans who use a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) at work to pay for their family’s basic medical needs will face a new government cap of $2,500 (currently the accounts are unlimited under federal law, though employers are allowed to set a cap).
There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are several million families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. This Obamacare tax provision will limit the options available to these families.
The Obamacare Surtax on Investment Income – a $123 billion tax increase: This is a new, 3.8 percentage point surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single). This would result in the following top tax rates on investment income:
| Capital Gains | Dividends | Other* | |
| 2012 | 15% | 15% | 35% |
| 2013+ (current law) | 23.8% | 43.4% | 43.4% |
The table above also incorporates the scheduled hike in the capital gains rate from 15 to 20 percent, and the scheduled hike in dividends rate from 15 to 39.6 percent.
The Obamacare “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deductions – a $15.2 billion tax increase: Currently, those Americans facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). This tax increase imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. By limiting this deduction, Obamacare widens the net of taxable income for the sickest Americans. This tax provision will most harm near retirees and those with modest incomes but high medical bills.
The Obamacare Medicare Payroll Tax Hike — an $86.8 billion tax increase: The Medicare payroll tax is currently 2.9 percent on all wages and self-employment profits. Under this tax hike, wages and profits exceeding $200,000 ($250,000 in the case of married couples) will face a 3.8 percent rate instead. This is a direct marginal income tax hike on small business owners, who are liable for self-employment tax in most cases. The table below compares current law vs. the Obamacare Medicare Payroll Tax Hike:
| First $200,000 ($250,000 Married) Employer/Employee |
All Remaining Wages Employer/Employee |
|
| Current Law | 1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed |
1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed |
| Obamacare Tax Hike | 1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed |
1.45%/2.35% 3.8% self-employed |
Click here to view a PDF of this list.
Follow John Kartch on Twitter: @JohnKartch
Photo Credit: Fresh Conservative (Creative Commons)
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And people love this horrible creature I simply don’t understand nor will I ever understand.
you are so right and what these people see in this mad man is beyond me. He is destroying America, he is screwing the people, he is on a one man path to destruction and anyone who voted for him the 1st time should see what he has done and they gave him a chance and he showed what he could do and that is nothing but spend money, go on vacation, and lie, lie and lie so if they gave this illegal Muslim guy a chance then why not give Romney = Ryan a chance to fix America. I love my country but as the old saying goes stupid is as stupid does and that one stupid person who is voting for Nobama cuz of the phone it shows. Howard Stern stood on the street this week asking if people were going to vote for nombama because he was white and Paul Ryan was black and they said yes; He asked so many questions on that line and the idiots didn’t even know really who Nobama or Romney were and if this is what we have voting God we are in trouble. Have a good week end
Everyone says it is Romney and Ryan who want billions from medicare when in fact it is Nobama and if this is what you Nobama lovers want then go for it but he is nothimg more than a Hitler 2 who will turn this nation into a Muslim Nation and as dirty as he has got in what he spouts off about going after voter rolls is as low as a person can get. Not only has the national debt gone so high it will be out future generation who pays for it and most of them are not even born yet. The United States credit rating has gone down and him and his ape lady and his 2 girls can spend millions on vacations and even send family and friends on the vacations and all the secret service and then to send their daughter to Mexico with friends and secret service and then tell the new to hide it. If you want a liar, crook and his ape looking smile and teeth you want more than most of the country
If you fools think this is bad; just wait till you re-elect him; then it will be time to really bend over.
Medical device tax, huh? Let’s see….oxygen concentrators are medical devices. He actually has figured out a way to tax us for the very air we breathe. To think this country got started because of a one percent tax on tea.