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Thursday, September 29, 2016

8.1 Million Taxpayers Paid $1.7 Billion in Obamacare Penalties in 2014

New data reveals $200 million more in penalties than previous estimates

Nearly 8.1 million taxpayers paid $1,694,088,000 in Obamacare penalties for not having health insurance in 2014, the first year the penalty was in effect, according to the most recent data from the Internal Revenue Service.

“Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act required that individuals must have had health care coverage, qualified for a health coverage exemption, or made a shared responsibility payment with a tax return,” the IRS said. “A health care individual responsibility payment was made on 8.1 million returns for $1.7 billion, an average of $210 per tax return paying this penalty.”

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told lawmakers in 2015 that preliminary data from the IRS found that approximately 7.5 million taxpayers paid a total of $1.5 billion in penalties. This means about 560,000 more taxpayers paid about $200 million more in penalties than was previously reported.

In 2014, individuals were required to pay either a flat penalty of $95 for each uninsured adult or one percent of their household’s adjusted gross income in excess of the threshold for mandatory tax filing, whichever is greater. In 2016, those penalties rose to a flat fee of $695 or 2.5 percent of the AGI measure.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And who does it hit the hardest? The people who can't afford it. $695 might seem to be a pittance for those with the cash, it's not for those who struggle from paycheck to paycheck.

Anonymous said...

Small businesses pay the most.

Anonymous said...

1:21 that is an outright lie. People not in group policies or on the exchange pay the most. They pay more for the same policy a company group may have.

So if you do not qualify for the exchange and your employer is too greedy to offer anything you pay out the behind.

Anonymous said...

This stupid obama care was a disaster from day one when Pelosi said "you have to pass it to see what's in it". WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND CAN VOTE FOR THE SOCIALIST DEMOCRATIC PARTY !!!

Anonymous said...

Government cash cow

Anonymous said...

Obamacare ain't nothing but a national debt collection program. The government created the debts. The taxpayer will continue to pay the 16 trillion dollar debt. Just keep working until you die.

Anonymous said...

Premiums have risen consistently since its inception. Premium for lesser coverage and higher deductibles went up almost 20% for us from 2015 to 2016. It is a serious problem. It really hit home when I went to a conference and a lady from Spain said she only lived here because she loved her husband and he was from America. She couldn't stand how we as Americans treat healthcare as a business instead of looking at it in a humanitarian sense. There should be no profit allowed in healthcare. It is one aspect where capitalism does not work.