Wave of tax changes comes with health law

The new health law will make a variety of changes to the tax code, including higher levies on the wealthy and millions of dollars in lost deductions for some corporations.

Los Angeles Times: "With enactment of his signature healthcare law, President Obama has also made good on another major campaign promise: to ease the tax burden on middle-class Americans and pay for his domestic agenda by raising taxes on the wealthy." Upper-income families earning more than $250,000 ($200,000 for individuals) will pay new taxes to pay for the overhaul on top of expiring Bush-era tax cuts. Together they could be on the hook for another $650 billion over ten years (Hook, 4/7).

Detroit Free Press: A roundup of new tax changes includes: A 10-percent excise tax on tanning services; deductions for health expenses will be limited beginning in 2013; the adoption tax credit will be increased and extended; and new penalties will be imposed on people who don't have health insurance. The penalties, beginning in 2014, will range from $95 to $285 a year to start, but will rise in 2016 to $695 for an adult. (4/8).

The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer: "A new 10 percent tax on indoor tanning sessions, buried in the new health care law, couldn't come at a worse time for Jill's Beach salons." Tanning salon earners are concerned that the new levy comes on top of revenue drops as high as 20 percent as Americans curb their personal budgets because of the slumping financial situation (Ranii, 4/8).

The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot: "Norfolk Southern Corp. has announced it will pay about $27 million more in expenses for the first quarter of the year as a result of federal health care legislation signed last month." The charge is the result of a health-law tax change that would affect a deduction for company-sponsored drug coverage (McCabe, 4/8).

Associated Press/Bloomberg BusinessWeek: For the same reason, "United States Steel Corp. said Wednesday it expects to record a $27 million charge in the first quarter as a result of tax adjustments in the health care reform law." (4/7).

Fox News: Meanwhile, Republicans are warning that the IRS tax collectors will seek new power. Although "IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman says his agents may target taxpayers' refunds in order to collect fines from those who don't buy health coverage," but little more, Republicans expect the IRS to engage in a power grab. "That'll be the next part, the broadening of the authority of the Internal Revenue Service," said Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill. (4/7).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.