New Tax rates being blamed on the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare?
This image, and posts similar to it, have been going around the social media and email circuits, which claims that all of these new taxes go into effect on Jan 15, 2015, due solely to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known colloquially as Obamacare. In this post we research the origination and scope of each claim, and give our analysis with references of each of them. As you can see by our findings below, most of these new taxes are actually started by the “Fiscal Cliff Deal” of 2013 and not Obamacare.
Claims:
Top Medicare Tax: The ACA (Obamacare) did increase the top (income levels: $200k Individual/$250k Family) rate from 1.45% to 2.35% (a 0.9% increase) but this went into effect on Jan 1, 2013. [1]
Top Income Tax Bracket: The top tier incomes tax rate is going back to the same rate it was in 2001 (39.6%) as part of congresses “fiscal cliff” deal. [2]
Top Income Payroll Tax: No such thing as in income payroll tax, maybe it means the social security / medicare tax, but no combination of any of those is anywhere near 52.2%. Even if you add together the Social Security Tax (6.2%) the top Medicare Tax (2.35%) and the top Income Tax bracket (39.6%), you still only get 48.15%.
Capital Gains Tax: went up to 20% (not 28%) for people making more than $400,000 a year as part of congresses fiscal cliff deal [2]
Dividends Tax: went up to 20% (not 39.6%) for people making more than $400,000 a year as part of congresses fiscal cliff deal [2]
Estate tax: This was only 0% in 2010, it’s been around since 1918 and is going to be 40% for estates worth over $5 million dollars. It was 55% from 1997 to 2001, then it was 50% for 2002, 49% for 2003, 48% for 2004, 47% for 2005, 46% for 2006, 45% for 2007, 2008, 2009, then in 2010 the estate tax expired, but was renewed for 2011, 2012 at 35% and 2013, 2014, 2015 for 40%. [2]
Only one of these claimed tax rate increases is enacted by Obamacare.
Democrat vs Republican Vote
Affordable Care Act
The ACA, aka Obamacare, was passed by almost 100% by Democrats in both the Senate and House, and thus the Top Medicare Tax can be attributed to them.
House Vote [3]:
Aye: 219 Democrats, 0 Republicans
No: 34 Democrats, 178 Republicans
Senate Vote [4]:
Yeah Votes: 58 Democrats, 0 Republicans, 2 Independents
Nay Votes: 0 Democrats, 39 Republicans
Not Voting: 1 Republican
American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012
The Rest of this was passed by the H.R.8 – American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 [2] otherwise known as the “fiscal cliff deal”. This deal was passed to avoid the Government shutdown due to reaching the debt ceiling. This bill was introduced by Rep. Camp, Dave [R-MI-4] and passed both the House and Senate. And it was signed by the President on Jan 2, 2013. [5]
It passed the Senate 89-8 with 3 not voting [6]:
Yea Votes: 47 Democrats, 40 Republicans, 2 Independent
Nay Votes: 3 Democrats, 5 Republicans
Not Voting: 1 Democrat, 2 Republicans
It passed the House 256-171 with 3 not voting [7]:
Aye Votes: 237 Republicans, 19 Democrats
No Votes: 1 Republican, 170 Democrats
Not Voting: 1 Republican, 2 Democrats
References:
[1] Affordable Care Act Tax Provisions http://www.irs.gov/Affordable-Care-Act/Affordable-Care-Act-Tax-Provisions
[2] Henchman, J. (2013, Jan 1). Details of the Fiscal Cliff Tax Deal. Retrieved from Tax Foundation: http://taxfoundation.org/blog/details-fiscal-cliff-tax-deal
[3] H.R. 3590 (111th): Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (House) https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/111-2010/h165
[4] H.R. 3590 (111th): Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Senate) https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/111-2009/s396
[5] H.R. 8 (112th): American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr8
[6] H.R. 8 (112th): American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (Senate): https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/112-2012/s251
[7] H.R. 8 (112th): American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (House): https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/112-2012/h545
Sponsored Reading:
 See larger image The Fiscal Cliff: The Financial Crisis Facing American Cities
|
||||
