July 09, 2012

IRS Capable of Policing Health Care and Taxes?

"Under the law, the IRS will provide tax breaks and incentives to help pay for health insurance and impose penalties on some people who don't buy coverage and on some businesses that don't offer it to employees. 
"The changes will require new regulations, forms and publications, new computer programs and a big new outreach program to explain it all to taxpayers and tax professionals. Businesses that don't claim an exemption will have to prove they offer health insurance to employees."
Now that the Affordable Care Act has survived the Supreme Court as a tax, the Associated Press analyzes the difficult challenges that the IRS will face in managing it’s new responsibility to manage the penalties imposed on people who choose not to purchase health insurance. Stephen Ohlemacher of the Associated Press asserts that the IRS will have to “hire thousands of workers to manage it (the new tax law), requiring significant budget increases that already are being targeted by congressional Republicans determined to dismantle the president's signature initiative.”