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OK, it's a tax - but without enforcement?
Topic Started: Jul 8 2012, 05:28 AM (78 Views)
George K
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Finally
The Taxman Cometh

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The penalty will be fully phased in by 2016, when it will be $695 for each uninsured adult or 2.5 percent of family income, whichever is greater, up to $12,500. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 4 million people will pay the penalty that year.

The law, however, severely limits the ability of the IRS to collect the penalties. There are no civil or criminal penalties for refusing to pay it and the IRS cannot seize bank accounts or dock wages to collect it. No interest accumulates for unpaid penalties.

So how can the IRS enforce the mandate? Scary letters and threats to withhold tax refunds.

The law allows the IRS to withhold tax refunds to collect the penalty, and most filers get refunds. This year, 77 percent of the 135 million individual income tax returns processed by the IRS qualified for a refund. The average refund: $2,707.

For those who don't qualify for a refund, a stern letter from the IRS can be effective, even if it doesn't come with the threat of civil or criminal penalties, said Elizabeth Maresca, a former IRS trial attorney who supervises the Tax & Consumer Litigation Clinic at the Fordham University law school.

"Most people pay because they're scared, and I don't think that's going to change," Maresca said.
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Copper
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Shortstop
George K
Jul 8 2012, 05:28 AM

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 4 million people will pay the penalty that year.

Maybe the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office didn't know there is no penalty for not paying the tax.

Why would anyone pay the tax?

My estimate is that nobody will pay the penalty tax.

And why would anyone pay for health insurance if you get covered for free?
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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