Thanks to the LIVs, those who want free stuff, and the RINOs, we’ve all been Gruberized.
We’ve covered the many horror stories with Obamacare here.
In August, I reported how Obamacare rates are expected to rise in Oklahoma for next year. Ditto for those in Oregon. Last December I reported how Obamacare has increased non-group premiums in nearly all states. In February, I reported on a woman who was shocked when she was forced to pay back her Obamacare subsidy on her taxes.
Well, get ready to bend over even more for the IRS next year if you don’t have a qualified Obamacare health plan.
CBS reports that because of Obamacare everyone is required to be covered under a health insurance plan or pay a penalty. And the IRS is excited: that penalty is set to rise steeply this year.
If you were covered by an employer’s plan for most of 2015, you are in luck and can avoid the penalty. If you enrolled in an Obamacare-compliant plan no later than February 2015, you are lucky, too. Enrolling now won’t help you avoid the penalty one bit – too little too late. To avoid the penalty for 2016, if you won’t be covered under an employer’s plan, you’ll need to enroll in a health plan on an exchange in the first two months of 2016.
If you don’t meet the above criteria: get ready for a shocker when you do your taxes for 2015. You will have to pay a fine (also known as your “shared responsibility) when you file your 2015 tax return. The government has two ways of calculating what you’ll owe in 2015. That’s the greater of $325 for each adult and $162.50 for each child, not to exceed $975, or 2 percent of your family’s adjusted gross income. The most you can be fined is capped at the national average cost of a bronze-level health plan available on the exchanges. For 2015, that’s $2,570 for singles and $5,140 for families.
According to this calculator, the penalty in 2015 for a single individual whose adjusted gross income is $75,000 would be $1,294. The penalty for a married couple (no kids) with 2015 income of $100,000 would be $1,588.
Note that some people are exempt. This includes those who’ve been uninsured for three months or less in 2015 or lived abroad for more than a year. Here’s a complete list of these exemptions.
Also, some people can qualify for a hardship exemption. This includes those who are homeless, filed for bankruptcy, experienced a natural disaster that damaged your home or who’ve experienced the death of a family member.
DCG
