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health care bill is enacted, Democrats will have vastly expanded the
responsibilities of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and
fundamentally altered the relationship between the IRS and taxpayers.
Specifically, a report from the House Committee on Ways & Means
examines the Individual Mandate Tax (IMT) proposed in the Democrats’
health care legislation.
Under this provision, Democrats make the IRS the chief enforcer for a
new government-run health insurance system. One of the most troubling
aspects of this new IRS authority is the newly granted power to
collect additional taxes from Americans whose health insurance
coverage is deemed to be insufficient to meet the definition of
minimum coverage, as defined by federal bureaucrats, required to be
purchased. Disturbingly, the IRS would be in charge of verifying that
every American taxpayer has obtained acceptable health coverage for
every month of the year. If the IRS determines that a taxpayer lacks
acceptable insurance for even a single month, then the IRS would
impose a new tax on that taxpayer, even auditing the taxpayer and
could assess interest and penalties on top of the tax.
This is an unprecedented new role for the IRS – one that will inject
the IRS even further into the lives of American families. This report
examines the details of the IRS’s new powers and how this federal
bureaucracy will scrutinize and exercise its enhanced authority over
Americans. Key findings include: IRS agents verify if you have
“acceptable” health care coverage; IRS has the authority to fine you
up to $2,250 or 2 percent of your income (whichever is greater) for
failure to prove that you have purchased “minimum essential coverage”;
IRS can confiscate your tax refund; IRS audits are likely to increase;
IRS will need up to $10 billion to administer the new health care
program this decade; IRS may need to hire as many as 16,500 additional
auditors, agents and other employees to investigate and collect
billions in new taxes from Americans; and; Nearly half of all these
new individual mandate taxes will be paid by Americans earning less
than 300 percent of poverty ($66,150 for a family of four).
Anyone read Orwell's "1984" lately?
http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedFiles/IRS_Power_Report.pdf