The Spokesman Review: "Tax on Home Sales. Imposes a 3.8 percent tax on home sales and other real estate transactions. Middle-income people must pay the full tax even if they are “rich” for only one day – the day they sell their house and buy a new one."
The Spokesman Review is a Spokane Washington news source. The article is a must read for anyone interested in the consequences of Obama's health care solution. The article cites 19 new taxes we will be paying, most of which I was not aware of. And, I tend to be a news junky! In the article, Nancy Pelosi is cited as stating, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it …" Well, find out we are! The article exposes likely taxes on all sorts of items folks will pay attributed to the new health care bill.
3.8% on home sales? You've got to be kidding me. Doesn't our housing market need to be stimulated. Hmm, it will be stimulated unfortunately in the wrong direction.
4/8/2010 Update: Since posting this article, there has been a correction made to the original article. As it turns out, the tax increase will not effect most of us. You can read about it here.
There is a reason that promises of time to review the bill prior to signing CAN'T be honored. People would find out about all of the crap and raise hell about it.
Yup. I think this health care bill is going to hit those of us who are self-employed really hard. Probably because we make too much money. :(
Collen & Joe - read the article, very interesting, did some checking and supposedly the tax is only on any profit above the $250,000 or $500,000 exemption under current law. However, was not able to find that in the bill.
There are so many hidden taxes that we will have to pay in this. I find it very disturbing that they are taxing the recipients of medical care who need medical devices, such as pacemakers or artificial knees and joints. This is going to make us pay more for the insurance while piling on more for the treatment.
Thanks for chiming in Mike. At the end of he day, I wonder if the bill will even stand. If a Google search is done for let's say, "obama health care bill unconstitutional" there is plenty of legal fodder to overturn what has transpired over the passed month.
The author of the article is just assuming that a sales tax will be imposed. There is no language currently in the bill that says this.
Thanks for commenting RLP2451!
The bill does not state all sorts of things, however, the impact is obvious. Search in Google, "will health care bill increase real estate taxes" or better yet, "will health care bill increase taxes" and you will find volumes written on how the bill will increase taxes. It's kinda a no-brainer. Our country is deeply in debt with no money to spend, so the money to pay for health care has to come from somewhere.
I have no problem paying extra (real estate) taxes for those less fortunate, but to cover folks entering our country illegally is another thing.
http://www.spokesman.com/letters/2010/apr/01/response-paul-guppy-regarding-impact-health-care-b/
Thanks anonymous poster! Your update is a welcome relief. I've updated the original article to include the response you've provided. ;)
I read most of the legislation and I saw nothing that says illegal immigrants would be covered. In fact, they are covered right now. They just go to the emergency room and cause all of us to pay extra. So where's the difference?
A friend just forwarded me the email about the tax increase. He is notorious for saying, "I don't know if it's true, I just pass them along." I'm rather new to Active Rain, and always being a sceptic of what I see forwarded via email, I researched the article, to find the source and the truth. Thank you Active Rain for leading me directly to the source and answer!
New taxes are indeed coming everyone's way. We as a Naion now have the added burden of yet another entitlement program...to the tune of 2,500,000,000,000.00 of MONEY WE DON'T HAVE in the government coffers to pay!
Does anyone really think they are done "tweeking" this law?? Pleeeaase. They have just begun putting taxes upon us working smucks to pay for the "free" care for the nonworking.
The VAT tax is coming and it will affect the middle class and poor the most.
A couple of things regarding this issue. First, for anyone to be impacted, they must eran over 250k as a family or 200k as an individual, AND they must sell their home at a profit greater than 500k for couple or 250k for individuals. If you bought a home 10 years ago for 500k, and it appreciated at 10% annually through 2005, then was flat, not even depreciating for the next five (even though most markets have declined in value), your home would be worth 805k now. If you sold it and were a single individual, you would have made 305k minus the 250k exemption which leaves 55k times 3.8% you would owe 2,090 in taxes. Just for perspective. If you earned 199K annually or were married you would owe nothing. The problem I have with most arguments is when people say things like "The bill does not state all sorts of things, however, the impact is obvious." The bill doesn't say anything about most scary things so by default they are going to happen. Lets go back and talk about all the stuff every bill ever proposed DIDN't say and claim the negative impact of things never addressed as the truth. Simple statments for simple minds. This kind of tax doesn't belong in a healthcare bill but lets get real.
Yup, I hear ya michigan. I posted a correction to the original article in my blog entry. ;)
Jim, the difference in insuring illegals and what is done now is HUGE. First, by taking Citizens tax money and "giving" it to any and all who VIOLATE our laws and sneak into our country, is nothing but a kick in the teeth to those who work and pay those taxes. Most illegals do not pay taxes. Second, people who are given something for "free" do not monitor their use of those services. History has shown this over and over and over again. Because of this, the COST to US TAXPAYERS would skyrocket! Our current system limits care, and therefore taxpayer funding.
NEW TAXES
"A new 40 percent excise tax on health insurance plans. This will apply to plans valued in excess of $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. It will take effect in 2018 and is projected to raise $32 billion by 2019." (this is going to piss a lot of folks off when it goes into affect...which is why the slimes in Washington did it this way. obama doesn't want to be up for re-election when all these taxes come about!)
"Many families that make far less than $250,000 a year have high-end health plans and will be subject to the excise tax when it goes into effect in 2018, breaking President Obama's pledge not to tax these families. The threshold above which an insurance plan will be hit by the tax is indexed to increase at inflation plus 1 percent, which is below the rate of medical cost inflation. This means that more and more health insurance plans that Congress never intended to tax will fall above the threshold in future years.
An increase in the Hospital Insurance (HI) portion of the payroll tax. This will increase the employee's portion from 1.45 percent to 2.35 percent for families making more than $250,000 a year ($200,000 for singles). Combined with the employer's portion, the total rate will be 3.8 percent when the tax hike takes effect in 2013." (the employer's tax increase will certainly just be passed along to the workers via lower wages and no raises).
"There is a long-standing tradition that the payroll tax should be used exclusively to fund Social Security and Medicare. The increased HI rate not only breaks this principle, but also, and for the first time, will fund a new, separate entitlement. With this precedent broken, future Congresses will be tempted to use payroll tax increases to pay for other new programs that the tax was never intended to fund.
The $250,000 threshold is not indexed for inflation, so in inflation-adjusted terms, families making less than $250,000 a year today will pay the tax when it takes effect in 2013. As inflation increases, more and more middle-income families will be hit by the tax. This tax hike also breaks President Obama's pledge not to raise taxes on these families.
Payroll taxes on investment. The PPACA applies the new higher 3.8 percent HI tax to investment income, including capital gains, dividends, rents, and royalties, effective in 2013.
For the first time, a portion of the payroll tax will apply to investment income--a sharp departure from the nature and history of social insurance programs and another dangerous precedent for future policy. This will discourage investment and lead to slower economic growth, fewer jobs, and lower wages.[4] Tax policy should work to reduce the growth-depleting tax on capital income, not to increase that burden." -Heritage.org
The new investment tax affects EVERYONE. Have a parent who has worked hard all their life, saved and paid off their home? Get ready to help pay for their living expenses in the future, because obama and his thugs have just STOLEN part of their retirement!
MORE...
"Over time, the hodgepodge of new taxes in effect now or in the future will substantially slow economic growth and affect taxpayers from all walks of life. This will become most apparent in lost wages and international competitiveness.
These lost wages, largely out of the pockets of low- and middle-income families, represent a huge cost of this legislation that does not show up in any official tables, but this cost is every bit as real. It reduces families' incomes just as surely as an income tax hike would and breaks the promise that President Obama made when he said he would not raise their taxes."
"President Obama repeated again and again during the campaign that he would not raise taxes on any family making less than $250,000 a year. He broke that promise early in his presidency when he increased cigarette taxes, and he has done so in a far grander way with this health care legislation. Not only will the higher HI taxes cost middle-income families jobs and suppress their wages, but the excise tax on high-cost plans will hit them directly.
Several of the taxes listed above, while not targeting middle-income families, will ultimately be passed on to them through higher prices. These include the fees on medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and health insurance companies and the new tax on tanning services."
Michigan, you couldn't be MORE WRONG. Read the details my friend.
EVEN MORE TAXES IN THE BILL...
The health legislation includes a myriad of smaller tax hikes, many of which will also fall on middle- and lower-income Americans. Many of them will not take effect until after Obama's potential second term. These hikes include:
My question is this:
We are married and make $100,000 income. Say we sell our house for a $650,000 profit. We will pay capital gains taxes on $150,000 ($650,000 minus $500,000 exemption) at the new 20% rate. Will the IRS now consider that $150,000 as additional income added to our $100,000 totalling $250,000 and now we're subject to the 3.8% healthcare tax?
Not sure jobak! You would certainly need to seek your financial adviser on this one. ;)
I did some checking on mediamatters.org.....and as usual they defended the liberal attack on American families saying that the letter was completely false.....I wrote the folling comment....
Even if everything you claim is incorrect about the new tax taking effect on home sales after 2013.....the ugly truth is this....when has the government ever stopped increasing a tax after they get it written into law....The social security tax....started out as a small small amount from everyones paycheck and has grown to what it is today.......and is it to take care of them when they retire and get older....ooooops guess not.....it has been raded for years since a democrat put it into the general fund.. Democrats....get a tax started on the premise it is small and wont effect everyone....and before you know it....or when no one is paying attention..........BOOOM....they have changed the rules.....changed the format.....changed the percentage......and if you didnt have your head stuck so far up this Presidents rear end you would realize that is the truth.....and make a stand and do something to protect the American people instead of protecting your liberal ideology and the novice you put in office. What this country needs is less taxation not more...explain it away however you want......it is all a pile of bull...that only stands to multiply
Does anyone know who sponsored the bill to have the real estate tax added into the ObamaCare?