First off, it is not a "fine" it is officially termed a "shared responsibility payment" - has a nice socialist ring to it! LOL
Secondly, I am questioning how it can be a "shared responsibility....anything" if there are so many exemptions, waivers and ways to avoid paying it. Does anyone find that interesting? Where is the sharing in that?
The gov't and politicians need to start using clear language and stop pussy-footing around with all these clever word disguises on policy issues. Another word is "insurance". Obamacare plans are not "Insurance" they are comprehensive pre-paid, one-size fits nobody, pricey, maximum non-essential healthcare JMFO
If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
Ronbo wrote: If you have a refund coming the IRS can withhold the fine from your refund. As long as you don't have a refund due, the IRS has no way to collect the fine. So those do not make much income should claim exempt or a boat load of exemptions so they do not have much (or none at all) withheld. Then they file and pay what they owe less the fine.
I never understood why anyone would set themsleves up to receive a large refund anyway. Why give the government an interest free loan.
In the long run, it will have to have more teeth and I think the best sign of this is that insurance companies were cancelling plans for 2014. With a large group crying that their plans were doubling adding $100's a month, I would think that the companies would have assumed that people would have opted to have the old non-qualifying coverage and pay the lousy $95 one time, even just for 2014. They also could have marketed around this solution, a legal way to keep your old insurance for a meager $95 in 2014.
They did not do this, and my sense is they know that the way you described it was just put in to pass the initial law, this will get revised and my sense is that the law is written so that it does NOT take an act of congress to do so, it may only be as simple as the IRS changing that rule so that it is simply due, not part of some refund softening, they may have done it already.
I think big refunds are rare and even if I am wrong they are a good punishment for not paying attention in math class.
Your're right, in the short run you can make sure to underpay taes to avoid a refund and ACA tax, but that won't work for very long. The math will never add up and the next Democrat president/congress will just pull an Obama and change the law making it possible to garnish wages for unpaid taxes. You know what they say about death and taxes....
The left is angry because they are now being judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.
