So the big question this year is How does the health care law impact my taxes? For most people that had insurance last year, it’s just another question your tax preparer has to ask you before checking off a box on your tax return. But if you didn’t have health insurance last year, or you got health insurance through the Exchange (Marketplace), well then things can get pretty ugly! You may even have to pay a “penalty” (the Supreme Court calls it a “tax”) back to the IRS if you didn’t have insurance or got too big of a subsidy from the Exchange.
Which leads to the next question – I heard that the penalty for not having health insurance could only be collected if I have a tax refund coming? This is sort of true. The law as currently written does say that, but let’s face it people, the IRS isn’t particularly concerned with how laws are worded when taking, er collecting, our money! If you owe the penalty, it will reduce your refund, and a penalty that is unable to be collected through your refund will still result in taxes being owed, and the IRS is quite good at going after monies they say you owe! So unless you want to have the IRS after you (and you don’t), you’re going to have to suck it up and pay the penal- er, I mean Tax.
On another note, we’ve been really busy early February this year, so if you’ve sent over tax papers and haven’t heard from us yet, please be patient. Our turn-around time is usually about a week. Please feel free to phone or email me if you want a status update.
A little poetry (it rhymes and everything!):
“Don’t tax you, don’t tax me
Let’s tax that guy behind the tree
But then we looked behind the tree
and all we found was thee and me.“