IRS Chief: Americans Must Buy Health Insurance or Lose Their Tax Refunds
Daily Caller
Individuals who don’t purchase health insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. After acknowledging the recently passed health-care bill limits the agency’s options for enforcing the individual mandate, Shulman told reporters that the most likely way to penalize individuals that don’t comply is by reducing or confiscating their tax refunds.
Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, Shulman downplayed the IRS’s role in enforcing the recent overhaul of the health insurance industry by claiming the agency would not aggressively target individuals who don’t purchase coverage. He noted that the health-care bill expressly forbids the agency from freezing bank accounts, seizing assets or pursuing criminal charges, but when pressed said the IRS would most likely use tax refund offsets to penalize those that don’t comply with the mandate. The IRS uses refund offsets to collect from individuals that owe the federal government a delinquent debt.
“These are not the kinds of things we send agents out about,” Shulman said. “These are things where you get a letter from us. Congress was very careful to make sure there was nothing too punitive in this bill.”
“I think there’s a couple important points I would make though about our role in health reform. One is that these are not the kinds of things – check the box whether you’re here or not – that we send agents out about. These are things where you get a letter from us…
“My belief is that while some people may play with the kind of question that was asked, the vast majority of people have a healthy respect for the law and want to be compliant with their tax obligations and whatever else the law holds.
“People will get letters from us, we can actually do collection if need be, people can get offsets of their tax returns in future years. So there’s a variety of ways for us to focus on things like fraud, things like abuse.”
He also said it is too early to know what additional resources or how many employees the IRS will need to enforce compliance with the mandate and clarified his reasons for using a professional tax preparer.
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Wild Thing’s comment………
“Individuals who don’t purchase health insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman”
This news will have people filling out new W-4s from coast to coast and in the end, the government will earn less interest because they’ll be hoarding less overpayments. There is some really mindboggling stuff going on in this country right now.
I also understand that the amount paid for individual or group insurance by the employer will go on that individual W2 as income. I’m probably not saying this right. So, if it costs your employer 600 dollars a month for your insurance, that amount goes against you as income. Nice huh?
A friend predicted today that the IRS will now require maximum withholdings instead of minimum so that you’ll have a supposed tax refund. This way, if your owe for health insurance, they can confiscate the money.
Greg, I heard that too. An employers contribution will be counted as income.
Tax, tax, tax. Get ready folks. The floodgate of govt spending has been opened wide and now comes the flood of taxes to pay for that spending. Many govt agencies are now purchasing firearms for their employees. It appears the govt is expecting some resistance to it’s unfettered growth and imposition. This bullride will last longer than eight seconds.
Ya know, if DC were turned to glass by Iran, I’d actually applaud them for ridding us of this terrible disease.
WT I was thinking the same thing. But they may have that rigged differently too. We just have to hang on long enough to get new blood in D.C. and repeal all this nonsense, close down the IRS and get the flat tax going. Reclaim a little bit of freedom.
The power to tax is the power to destroy. But it isn’t tryranny when liberals do it, right?
And they need 16,500 more IRS storm troopers to make sure the people pay their fair share.