Affordable Care Act

Taxes, Charitable Gifts, the ACA, and Ineffective Deadlines

Scrambling to make a last-minute charitable donation to beat the New Year’s Eve deadline for a 2014 tax deduction? Take a deep breath and ask yourself, “Why am I going through this craziness now?” Why is an activity that is largely (though not entirely) tax-motivated built around the end of the

December 30, 2014Howard Gleckman

Business Taxes: TaxVox

How Did Medical Device Makers Become Poster Children for Obamacare Critics

The push to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s tax on medical devices has somehow become a touchstone for GOP efforts to chip away at President Obama’s health care law. But why? To paraphrase Bogart’s classic line from Casablanca: Of all the taxes in all laws in all the world, why did they pick this

November 13, 2014Howard Gleckman

: TaxVox

ACA Tax Provisions Still Under Fire

Together again: The US Supreme Court, the IRS, and the Affordable Care Act. Two years ago, the Court ruled that the ACA health care mandate is a constitutional tax. Now, it has decided to consider whether the IRS has overstepped its authority by providing premium tax credits to enrollees in

November 10, 2014Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Whither the Highway Trust Fund?

Smoothing pensions to fund highways: A bumpy, short road. The House Ways & Means Committee will include “ pension smoothing ” in a $10.9 billion highway funding bill to be marked up tomorrow . In 2012 lawmakers covered two years of highway and transit funding by allowing employers to delay tax-

July 9, 2014Renu Zaretsky

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Good And Bad News About The ACA Penalty Tax

An important feature of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the penalty tax imposed on people who do not have health insurance. But newly updated report from the Congressional Budget Office projects that just under 4 million people will pay the penalty in 2016, less than 15 percent of the estimated 30

June 12, 2014Roberton C. Williams

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

If You Have High Income, Your Taxes Are Going Up

As the April 15 deadline for filing 2013 income taxes nears, most of us are finding that Uncle Sam will take about the same share of our income as last year. But the story is very different for people at the top of the income ladder. Their taxes are going up, in many cases by a lot. Last year, the

April 8, 2014Roberton C. Williams

Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Fiscal Reality Check: Will Congress Pay for the Tax Extenders and the Doc Fix?

After it returns from Spring Break next week, Congress may face two big fiscal reality checks. It will have to decide whether to temporarily extend...

March 20, 2014Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

A Web Tool to Calculate ACA Tax Penalties

The deadline is looming: If you don’t have approved insurance coverage by March 31 (and are not exempt from the requirement), the Affordable Care Act...

March 6, 2014Roberton C. Williams

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

How 19 Million Uninsured Tax Filers Could Get ACA Coverage

Back in November, I suggested that tax prep firms might be a useful portal for low-income people to get insurance coverage through the Affordable Care...

February 20, 2014Howard Gleckman

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Why Not Use Tax Preparers as a Portal to Health Exchanges?

What if we bought individual health insurance through our tax preparers? At first, the idea seems bizarre, but give me a minute to explain. Given...

November 14, 2013Howard Gleckman