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Are The New Taxes You’re Going To Pay For Obamacare - (finance.yahoo.com) ell, Obamacare is
now official, which means that a lot more people in the United States will have
health insurance. And it also means a lot more people will be paying more
taxes. (You didn't think Obamacare was free, did you?) Here are
some of the new taxes you're going to have to pay to pay for Obamacare:
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A
3.8% surtax on "investment income" when your adjusted gross income is
more than $200,000 ($250,000 for joint-filers). What is "investment
income?" Dividends, interest, rent, capital gains, annuities, house sales,
partnerships, etc. Taxes on dividends will rise from 15% to 18.8%--if Congress
extends the Bush tax cuts. If Congress does not extend the Bush tax cuts, taxes
on dividends will rise from 15% to a shocking 43.8%. (WSJ)
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A
0.9% surtax on Medicare taxes for those making $200,000 or more ($250,000
joint). You already pay Medicare tax of 1.45%, and your employer pays
another 1.45% for you (unless you're self-employed, in which case you pay the
whole 2.9% yourself). Next year, your Medicare bill will be 2.35%. (WSJ)
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Flexible
Spending Account contributions will be capped at $2,500. Currently, there is no
tax-related limit on how much you can set aside pre-tax to pay for medical
expenses. Next year, there will be. If you have been socking away, say, $10,000
in your FSA to pay medical bills, you'll have to cut that to $2,500. (ATR.org)
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The
itemized-deduction hurdle for medical expenses is going up to $10,000. Right
now, any medical expenses over $7,500 per year are deductible. Next year, that
hurdle will be $10,000. (ATR.org)
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The
penalty on non-medical withdrawals from Healthcare Savings Accounts is now 20%
instead of 10%. That's twice the penalty that applies to annuities, IRAs,
and other tax-free vehicles. (ATR.org)
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A
tax of 10% on indoor tanning services. This has been in place for two
years, since the summer of 2010. (ATR.org)
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A
40% tax on "Cadillac Health Care Plans" starting in 2018.Those whose
employers pay for all or most of comprehensive healthcare plans (costing
$10,200 for an individual or $27,500 for families) will have to pay a 40% tax
on the amount their employer pays. The 2018 start date is said to have been a
gift to unions, which often have comprehensive plans. (ATR.org)
·
A"Medicine
Cabinet Tax" that eliminates the ability to pay for over-the-counter
medicines from a pre-tax Flexible Spending Account. This started in
January 2011. (ATR.org)
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A
"penalty" tax for those who don't buy health insurance. This
will phase in from 2014-2016. It will range from $695 per person to about
$4,700 per person, depending on your income. (More details here.)
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A
tax on medical devices costing more than $100. Starting in 2013, medical
device manufacturers will have to pay a 2.3% excise tax on medical equipment.
This is expected to raise the cost of medical procedures. (Breitbart.com)
He felled a giant, but he can't collect - (www.nytimes.com) “TAKING on corporate Goliaths
for their wrongdoing should not be so daunting.” That’s the view of Michael
Winston, a former executive at Countrywide Financial, the subprime lending
machine that was swallowed up by Bank of America in 2008. Mr. Winston
won a wrongful-dismissal and retaliation case against the company in February
2011, but is still waiting to receive his $3.8 million award. Bank of America
is fighting back and has appealed the jury verdict twice. After hearing a month
of testimony from a parade of top Countrywide officials, including the
company’s founder, Angelo
Mozilo, a California state jury sided with Mr. Winston. An executive
with decades of expertise in management strategy, he contended
that he was pushed out for, among other things, refusing to
follow questionable orders from his superiors.
Byron
Wien: I Spoke To The Smartest Man In Europe, And What He Had To Say Was
Terrifying - (www.businessinsider.com)
Debt will lead to a collapse.
So what does TSMIE see now? Basically that massive amounts of debt will bring
the decline of Western Civilization, but that in the meantime, before that
happens, policy makers would pull every trick they could in order to stave off
a catastrophic event. He started out by saying he had done some preparation for
our visit. “I think the title of your essay should be ‘Dancing around the
Fire of Hell.’ For years I’ve been telling you that the accumulation of
debt was going to be the ending of the developed world and for years you have
been telling me my views are too extreme. The problem is you are an
optimist and I am a realist. You go around with a smile on your face
thinking that there are serious problems facing us, but that everything will
turn out favorably because the policy makers will do what they have to do to
avoid disaster, and so far you have been right. The developed economies
and their stock markets have plodded along and investors haven’t made or lost
much money in spite of the challenges. At a certain point, however, the
temporary measures that the policy makers put in place to avoid financial
catastrophe prove insufficient and that’s where we are now. I’m not
saying that it will happen tomorrow but events are falling into place that will
take the smile off your face.
Select Wal-Mart stores pulled in 25 to 40 percent in revenues from food stamps. - (www.mybudget360.com) When you think of food stamp usage you rarely think about big financial profits. Yet some businesses are managing to get a big piece of the food stamp pie. Last year alone the government spent a record $78 billion in food stamps. This is a large amount of money and this is why you might notice more EBT signs if you ever pay attention when you are driving around. The money when broken down by the 46 million Americans receiving this aid is not much but actually speaks to the underlying bifurcated nature of our economy. Many are stuck below poverty status and many in the middle class simply struggle to get by. The Congressional Budget Office projects that food stamp usage will be high deep into 2015. Let us examine where this money is actually going.
Foreclosure prevention laws extend the slump, experts agree - (www.ochousingnews.com) State and federal laws enacted to protect homeowners from eviction in the wake of the 2008 housing crash may be extending the slump, according to a growing number of economists and industry experts. Foreclosures have all but ground to a halt in Nevada, which passed one of the stiffest borrower-protection laws in the country last year. Yet the housing market is further than ever from recovery, local real estate agents say, with a lack of inventory feeding a “mini-bubble” in prices that few believe is sustainable. The bulls, realtors and those who recently bought homes, assure us the recovery is solid, but the shadow inventory bulls want to ignore foretells another story. The dramatic spikes some markets like Phoenix have witnessed can only be sustained if shadow inventories never come to the market. Perhaps these future sales can be metered out at a rate which doesn’t push prices below previous lows, but perhaps not. Either way, it’s unlikely current gains will be sustained and rapid appreciation is forthcoming.
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