Obamacare Raising Taxes on Middle Class Breaking President Barack Obama’s Promise

How many times in the past three years have you heard President Barack Obama promise not to raise taxes on middle class Americans?

Well brace yourselves boys and girls because he LIED!

Obamacare contains at least 20 different provisions which either raise existing taxes or creates new ones and many of these effect Americans making less than $250,000 per year which is his definition of middle class.  Worse yet is that five of these taxes will impact the elderly the most, who in most cases can least afford it.

First is an increase tax on dividends which begins in January 2013.  The current tax rate for dividend income is 15%, but that will increase to 39.6% for anyone receiving dividend income.  Currently, taxpayers 55 years and older receive nearly 70% of paid dividends according to an analysis of IRS data.  Anyone making more than $250,000 per year will pay an additional 3.8% surtax on dividends which makes their dividend tax a whopping 43.4%.

The second tax also takes effect in 2013 and that is the medical device excise tax.  All medical devices manufactures will pay an excise tax on all of the medial devices they produce such as wheelchairs, pacemakers, walkers, etc.  Seniors are the largest purchasers of these devices and will assuredly see the prices for them increase to offset the taxes paid by the manufacturers.

The third tax issue that will be felt by all Americans will be a reduction in the allowable medical itemized deductions on your federal income taxes.  Currently, taxpayers must subtract 7.5% of their adjustable gross income from their itemized medical deductions.  Starting in 2013, you will have to subtract 10% of the adjustable gross income instead of 7.5%, thus reducing the amount of medical deductions one can claim on their federal income taxes.  Again, according to IRS figures, about 60% of those claiming itemized medical deductions 55 years old and older.

The fourth tax to impact the elderly the most is the excise tax penalty for those who are not in compliance with the individual mandate part of Obamacare.  Set to take effect in 2014 (if the US Supreme Court does not overturn it this year), those individuals who do not have qualified health insurance will pay a penalty in the form of an excise tax when filing their federal income taxes.  In 2016, that penalty will increase to 2.5% of your adjusted gross income or $1,390 for anyone making less than $55,600 per year.  A number of younger retirees are not old enough for Medicare and no longer are covered by their former employer’s coverage.  This group is expected to get hit the hardest.  Additionally, many elderly are trying to survive on very tight budgets and cannot afford any kind of health insurance.  This excise tax will also hit them hard.

The fifth tax is commonly referred to as the Cadillac Plan excise tax which is scheduled to take effect in 2018.  Believe it or not, this plan will impose a 40% excise tax on high –cost insurance plans.  For senior couples, this means if you are paying more than $29,450 for a family plan, you will be imposed a 40% excise tax for your exorbitant health insurance.  A single senior paying more than $11,500 a year will also be slapped with the 40% excise tax.  Seniors with extra insurance to cover such things as cancer and chronic illnesses or disabilities will be the ones most likely to be gouged with the Cadillac Plan excise tax.  In other words, if you are paying for extra coverage to cover life threatening illnesses and disabilities, you either need to lower your coverage so it will cost you more out of pocket or Obamacare will tax you to cost you more out of pocket.

Mind you that these five taxes are all on top of the other fifteen taxes that will affect everyone including seniors.  It’s just that these five will hit seniors harder than they will the rest of Americans.

From the moment Barack Obama announced that he was going to run for the presidency of the United States, he has lied, lied, lied and lied some more.  When he extended his one hand offering the wonderful benefits of Obamacare, he was reaching in and stealing your wallet with the other hand.

President Obama repeatedly says he is fighting to help middle class Americans.  What he isn’t saying is that his fight is to eliminate middle class Americans by driving them to poverty or the cemetery.  In a socialistic nation, there is no middle class and that seems to be the main purpose of Obamacare.

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