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Millions to Owe Hundreds of Dollars in Obamacare Tax Penalties This Year

Photo Credit: NewscomSome 3 million to 6 million Americans will have to pay an Obamacare tax penalty for not having health insurance last year, Treasury officials said Wednesday. It’s the first time they have given estimates for how many people will be subject to a fine.

The penalty is $95, or 1% of income above a certain threshold (roughly $20,000 for a couple). So you could end up owing the IRS a lot of money.

Take a married couple with $100,000 in income – their bill comes to $797, according to the Tax Policy Center ACA penalty calculator.

The penalty for remaining uninsured rises to the larger of $325 or 2% of income in 2015.

As millions of Americans sit down in coming weeks to compile their tax returns, they’ll have to contend with Obamacare’s health insurance mandate for the first time. (Read more about the Obamacare tax penalty HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

State of the Union 2015: Obama Deceives America Again

The Daily Signal laid out a number of lies that Obama told during Tuesday’s State of the Union 2015:

1. Budget Deficit Primed to Grow, Not Shrink

President Obama touted shrinking deficits in today’s State of the Union address. This is about the only time in the foreseeable future the president will get to say that. The average annual deficit over the next decade is projected at $950 billion, just shy of a trillion. Starting this year and looking out as far as projections go, the deficit–absent further policy changes–is only heading in one direction: Up. Why address chronic and rising deficits confronting the nation, when you can enjoy a talking point while it lasts?

2. Obama’s Regulations Weren’t Sensible, They Guarantee Future Bail-Outs for Big Banks, Paid for by the People

President Obama claims credit for crafting “sensible regulations” that will prevent another financial crisis as well as a new government “watchdog” to protect consumers. But the massive Dodd-Frank regulation statute actually entrenches the concept of “too-big-to-fail,” the very concept upon which bailouts are based. And the new “watchdog,” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has exploited its unconstrained regulatory powers over virtually every aspect of consumer finances, including banking services, mortgages and credit cards—none of which had any connection to the financial crisis. The result has been higher costs for financial services and fewer options, which actually has inhibited the economic recovery and consumer welfare.

Read more about the disappointing State of the Union 2015 HERE.

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Illegal Alien Seated with Michelle Obama as Guest of Honor at SOTU

By Susan Jones. Ana Zamora, who came to the United States illegally, is among the 22 people selected to sit with First Lady Michelle Obama at tonight’s State of the Union address.

This is an honor bestowed on people who provide a human face for the liberal agenda that President Obama will lay out. Ana is the face of Obama’s executive amnesty, which conservative Republicans call an affront to the U.S. Constitution.

The White House describes Ana as a “letter writer, student, DREAMer.” She was brought here illegally as a child by parents who were themselves illegal aliens, and that’s exactly why she’s being honored by the White House.

If President Obama has his way, Ana and her parents will never be deported. They will be among the millions of “undocumented immigrants” who are allowed to stay in this country, something that is contrary to current law, but in accordance with directives issued by President Obama after Congress refused to enact his immigration plan. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Proposed Tax Hikes Part of Every One of Obama’s State of the Union Speeches

By Jason Russel. Proposed tax hikes on capital gains and banks [were] included in President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday . . . The announcement continues Obama’s tradition of proposing tax hikes in his six previous State of the Union addresses dating back to 2009. Here’s a list detailing Obama’s proposed tax hikes:

2015

Obama will call for a capital gains tax hike on high-earners from 23.8 percent to 28 percent, nearly double the 15.35 percent rate when he took office. He also wants to change the treatment of inherited capital gains so that inheritors end up paying more to the government. Banks with assets over $50 billion would also be hit with a new 0.07 percent tax on their liabilities, raising $100 billion over 10 years. These changes combine for a $300 billion tax increase over 10 years.

2014

Obama proposed closing tax loopholes to raise effective tax rates and using the revenue for infrastructure spending. He also wanted to close tax breaks that he said give “$4 billion a year to fossil fuel industries.” The 2014 State of the Union had the fewest references to taxes of Obama’s addresses so far. (Read more about the proposed tax hikes HERE)

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Ingraham: Obama Tax Proposal About Populist Theme For Hilary Clinton

By Ian Hanchett. Talk radio host Laura Ingraham said that President Obama’s tax proposals were about “trying to set a populist theme for Hillary Clinton” on Tuesday.

“He’s [Obama] getting his party ready for 2016. He wants to do what George W. Bush couldn’t do in 2008. George W. Bush couldn’t campaign…for the Republican nominee…They didn’t want him anywhere near the conventions” she stated.

Ingraham continued “Obama wants to be the anti-Bush when it comes to that, so he wants to set the themes for 2016. What he’s doing in this State of the Union speech is not thinking he’s going to get all this passed through Congress, he won’t…but he’s trying to set a populist theme for Hillary Clinton.” (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Unions Poised to Win Delay of ObamaCare Tax in Budget Deal

Photo Credit: majunznkLabor unions are poised to score the delay of an ObamaCare tax in the bipartisan budget deal emerging in the Senate.

The bargain under negotiation would make small adjustments to the healthcare law, including delaying the law’s reinsurance fee for one year. The three-year tax is meant to generate revenue that will stabilize premiums on the individual market as sick patients enter the risk pool.

The tax applies to all group health plans, but unions argue it will raise their healthcare costs while providing them no benefit.

The reinsurance tax figured prominently in discussions at a recent AFL-CIO convention, where workers passed a resolution demanding changes to ObamaCare.

The White House recently denied labor’s top priority on ObamaCare, ruling that union health plans are not eligible for the new subsidies because they are already helped by the tax code.

Read more from this story HERE.

Government gone wild: IRS paying billions in fraudulent tax refunds

Photo credit: saturnism

The IRS is paying out billions of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds to identity thieves; a problem that the tax service’s inspector general told CNBC is a “growing problem” involving numbers that are increasing “exponentially.”

In a new report to be issued Thursday, the inspector general for the IRS says that tax thieves are stealing the identities of taxpayers and then filing bogus returns on their behalf and collecting fraudulent refunds as a result.

The inspector general estimates that the IRS could issue as much as $21 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over the next five years.

The scam is so rampant that thieves are apparently sending in false returns in bulk without even bothering to change the mailing address on the returns. The inspector general said it found one residential address in Lansing, Michigan that was the source of an astonishing 2,137 tax returns, and to which the IRS directed more than $3.3 million in potentially fraudulent refunds.

In another case, a single residential address in Chicago was the source of 765 tax returns, generating more than $900,000 in potentially fraudulent refunds, the report said.

Read more from this story HERE.

UN calls for international tax on billionaires to transfer wealth to poor

The United Nations on Thursday called for a tax on billionaires to help raise more than $400 billion a year for poor countries.

An annual lump sum payment by the super-rich is one of a host of measures including a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, currency exchanges or financial transactions proposed in a UN report that accuses wealthy nations of breaking promises to step up aid for the less fortunate.

The annual World Economic and Social Survey says it is critical to find new ways to help the world’s poor as pledged cash fails to flow.

The report estimates that the number of people around the globe worth at least $1 billion rose to 1,226 in 2012.

There are an estimated 425 billionaires in the United States, 315 in the Asia-Pacific region, 310 in Europe, 90 in other North and South American countries and 86 in Africa and the Middle East.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Jorbasa