In article <
14c4646f-89b7-4018...@googlegroups.com>,
Fiction.
"There Is No Obamacare Tax On Most Home Sales. Really.
A home is for sale in Glendale, California May 31, 2011. US home prices
fell to new, post-bubble lows in March with no end to the decline in
sight according to analysts. The latest Standard & Poors Case-Shiller
home price index figures released May 31 show prices for homes in 20
cities fell 0.8 percent from February, the eighth drop in a row. Prices
are down 33.1 percent from their July 2006 pre-bust peak. (Image credit:
AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)
It is the unfounded rumor that never dies: You will have to pay a 3.8
percent federal health care tax on the sale of your house.
For all but a handful of taxpayers, this is not true. It is wrong. It is
urban myth. It is the revenue equivalent of death panels or the
Halliburton conspiracy to start the Iraq war.
This is one of those seemingly immortal Internet stories. You know the
ones: They usually start with the assertion that, łThey donąt want to
know this butŠ.˛ In the words of one blogger, łObamacare will impose a
3.8 percent tax on all home sales and real estate transactions.˛
Umm, no it wonąt. Yes, the health law will impose a 3.8 percent tax on
investment profits and other non-wage income starting in 2013. But that
tax applies only to couples with adjusted gross income of $250,000 (or
individuals with AGI of $200,000). About 95 percent of households make
less than that, and will be exempt from the law no matter what.
In addition, couples who sell a personal residence can exclude the first
$500,000 in profit from tax ($250,000 for singles). That would be profit
from a home sale, not proceeds. So a couple that bought a house for
$100,000 and sold it for $599,000 would owe no tax, even under the
health law."
<
http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2012/04/02/there-is-no-obamacare-tax
-on-most-home-sales-really/>
--
Alan Baker
Vancouver, British Columbia
"If you raise the ceiling four feet, move the fireplace from that wall
to that wall, you'll still only get the full stereophonic effect if you
sit in the bottom of that cupboard."