Washington Sneaks In New Obamacare Tax
By: Adam Busuttil
12-11-12
With much debate in
Washington over the Bush tax rates, little attention has been given to the new
Obamacare tax set to take effect the first of the year. Could this be an attempt to focus attention
away from the new Obamacare tax? An article by Fox News claims that while much
of the talk in Washington has been focused around the Bush tax rates, the fee’s
in the new Obamacare tax has been “largely overlooked”.
The
IRS released a report earlier this month outlining the fee’s and rules of this
new tax. One of the overlooked fees is
the new medical device tax. Georgia Congressman Tom Price said in a statement; “Now,
everything from latex gloves to pacemakers will become more expensive and in
some cases, more scarce,” Congressman Price also added; “The tax on medical
devices harms America’s ability to conduct the necessary research and
development to maintain our global competitiveness, resulting in the loss of
tens of thousands of jobs and fewer groundbreaking innovations in this field.
With millions of Americans unemployed, this simply makes no sense.”
While
there are several fees involved in the new tax, the medical device fee alone imposes
a 2.3% tax on certain medical devices, but that figure is based on gross sales
and how that will impact actual earnings is said to be inaccurate and estimated
to be closer to 15%. The new tax has
already caused new medical facilities to cancel plans to open, such as
Cook-Medical in Indiana who had plans to open 5 new facilities.
Regardless of whether Bush
tax cuts are extended or not, tax rates will increase do to this new Obamacare
tax and the cost of medical expenses will likely increase with it.
Earlier
this year the House voted to repeal the tax, but the Senate never took it
up.
Sources:
Deal or no deal, ObamaCare taxes poised to hit next
month. December 08, 2012 FoxNews.com. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/08/deal-or-no-deal-obamacare-taxes-poised-to-hit-next-month/
©
2012
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