Comments on: Taxing Health Care Benefits

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:06:30 +0000

Rainer,
Point well taken. I should have used another term.

By: Hanna

Hanna — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:14:08 +0000

I agree with Urbie, there is a major problem that you fail to take into consideration. We have 2, my spouse and I, and because we only have the single or family option our company share is 13000.00. Its clear that even thier portion is overpriced and that doesn’t include our portion which is another 3588.00 per year! To be taxed on this income is obsured. The other issue is that if your family is making 50000-70000 a year, even just two of you– you are middle class. Your not the rich, you the class paying for everything! We will had out tons of money and in the end the middle class worker is the one who will go broke.

By: Health Care Plan Leaves Huge Hole in the Budget | taxgirl

Health Care Plan Leaves Huge Hole in the Budget | taxgirl — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:13:17 +0000

[...] that proposal to tax employer provided health care benefits? It’s just not picking up enough support to push through. Democrats, in particular, are [...]

By: Loose Change: 7/6/09 | Debt, Credit Card & Consolidation Current News Digest

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:00:20 +0000

[...] your money. And we’re not just talking about deposits. [WSJ] -On taxing health-care benefits. [TaxGirl] -Add this to your calendar: a financial health day. [NYTimes] -When it comes to the new home [...]

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:01:00 +0000

I’m going to have to disagree that fairness can’t be a selective argument. You can certainly look at a moment in time or a piece of a bigger picture, judge that something is not fair and not, by that one instance, negate other fair moments. It happens all of the time in life – in sports, in entertainment, in court.

Just because one facet of something may not be fair doesn’t mean that everything that follows isn’t. And vice versa.

That isn’t to say that this tax would be “more” fair than any other, just to say that I think the arguments are separable.

By: garagefather

garagefather — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:54:14 +0000

I said it during the election and I will say it again. The BULL Obama spewed about cutting taxes for everyone making less than $250,000/yr was a lie when he said it, and he said it a hundred times. Everyone will see tax increases with this administration. If you smoke, you have already got your taxes raised far more than the income tax cut you received. The fact is, this administration beat it into our heads that we would get a tax cut. They didn’t whisper it, they yelled it from the roof tops. This administration lied over an over about this and many other promises it made.
If it is fair to tax these benefits then so be it. Cut my income taxes further so that I will not see a net loss in pay. Otherwise this is just a tax increase that I was promised not to have to endure.
If we want to talk about fair, what the hell is more unfair than the progressive income tax? We should all have to pay the same percentage of our income in tax, no matter what we make.
Fairness is not a selective argument. When we make an argument for fairness we need to look at the entire picture. Until we do that, we have no moral authority to determine what is fair and what is not; the whole system is unfair top to bottom and selecting only this one thing ignores the fundamental unfairness of the whole system. It’s like putting lip stick on a pig.

By: My Journey

My Journey — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:46:51 +0000

Kelly your breakdown of WHY this is fair seems logical, but this is just yet another increase in taxes proposed by a government out of control with spending.

Beyond the post itself, I can’t figure out why the mainstream media is yet to FULLY discuss how this will adversly affect those families who earn less than $200,000/$250K? Why isn’t this even talked about except on Fox which “kind of” gives it an anti-Obama feel.

By: Rainer

Rainer — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:31:46 +0000

Your logic is questionable, TaxGirl. You say “Nearly 80% of all businesses in the US are self-employed. (Source: US Census) That means that at least 80% of the US workforce provides their own health care benefits”.

Just because the business owner is self-employed does not mean that all of the staff are self-employed. Most businesses have more than one employee. These additional employees are not self-employed. And what of corporate businesses? Thousands and thousands of employees, none of them self-employed.

By: Jeff Day

Jeff Day — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:46:14 +0000

Seems simple to me, it is all NUTS! You have to be a democrat or a small child to always be crying: “IT ISN’T FAIR!”

The “CHANGE” that was created by the election of the Obamunism has just started and probably won’t end until we have a total “FAIR” system and everyone is paid according to their needs and not their values.

If someone should pay taxes on the health insurance benefits of the employer, then no one should be able to pay their insurance premiums pre-tax. That isn’t fair! And it certainly isn’t fair that not only do some folks get to have their insurance premiums pre-tax, they get to make purchases of prescription drugs through a health-savings plan pre-tax while others don’t.

What is the “fairness” that some people don’t make enough monies to save anything for their retirement, while others save considerable amounts through pre-tax dollars called 401k’s or IRA’s. But don’t worry the democrats and the Obamists have plans on correcting those unfair practises as well. They have taken over the auto industry and the banks and now the insurance industry and it won’t take long before the retirement industry and take everyone’s accounts transferring to the largest PONZI scheme in the world called the Social Security Administration.

Jeff Day EA

By: EllAnn

EllAnn — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:17:13 +0000

I agree with taxing employer-paid health care benefits. My husband and I have have always paid our own medical ins premiums, we were never lucky enough to have an employer who paid them. And we never were able to itemize our deductions so we never got any tax deduction on these premiums. And, no, we weren’t paid more than people working for companies who paid health care benefits.
Either tax the company paid benefits, or allow for an adjustment for medical insurance premiums paid by people who don’t have employer-paid med ins.