Thursday, April 10, 2014

IRS prepares to go after ObamaCare mandate fines

IRS_ACA.jpg (Bailey) Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! I Guess you little gimme, gimme, gimme Dimocrats are happy now?

With the ObamaCare enrollment deadline in the rearview for most, the IRS is preparing for the next step -- tracking and penalizing those who choose not, or cannot afford, to buy approved health insurance. 
How aggressive the agency will be in pursuing those fines, though, is an open question. The IRS already is under fire over last year's political targeting scandal and talk of harsh fines on the millions who still do not have insurance is a touchy subject in an election year. 
The agency says it is still drafting final tax forms and hiring staff to carry out the task, and is offering some details about how it will collect the penalties. 
For most, the penalty will not apply until early next year. Those who failed to purchase insurance by the March 31, 2014, deadline -- and are not exempt, or did not get an extension -- must inform the government on their tax forms in early 2015. 
The IRS is using a trust-but-verify approach. 
According to the agency, the IRS plans to include a specific line on the 1040 forms for taxpayers to "self-attest" whether they purchased insurance. It will most likely include a worksheet for taxpayers to calculate how much they owe -- essentially either a flat penalty or a percentage of their income. 
But the IRS also said it will aim to detect falsely reported information in the same way it does with income reported on the 1040s -- through a third party. 
Just as employers send a copy of a worker's W-2 forms to the IRS, insurance companies will send the government information on who has purchased a policy. (This could be complicated by the fact that many businesses who originally would have been required to offer insurance to employees now have until 2016.) 
For those who do not buy insurance, the question for the IRS is how far the agency goes to extract the penalty. 
The IRS has said since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 that it will follow the letter of law for those who fail to purchase insurance -- that is, Americans will face a fine but will not have their property or bank accounts levied. 
"Congress was very careful to make sure that there was nothing too punitive in this bill," then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said in 2010. 
He said at the time that those who fail to purchase insurance will get a letter from the IRS and could have their penalty taken from subsequent tax refunds. But he also made clear the agency "can actually do collection if need be." 
But whether Americans' wages can be garnished remains unclear. 
The penalty will start relatively small, which has led to speculation that many young and healthy people will simply choose to pay it this year as opposed to buying insurance. It starts at $95 per person or 1 percent of family income, whichever is greater. But over the next couple years, it rises to $695 per person -- while aggressively pursuing these fines could prove politically unpopular, failing to do so could also increase deficit projections. 
The IRS did not respond Wednesday to a question about how many additional employees have been hired as a result of ObamaCare. 
The IRS asked in 2012 to hire an additional 1,269 employees, at a cost of $473.4 million, to prepare for the health law's implementation, according to a budget proposal it made to the Treasury Department. 
However, most the requests were for support roles such as information technology or customer service, and few were for agents, according to the Tampa Bay Times' PolitiFact team, after examining the 159-page budget request. 
To be sure, there is already plenty of additional paperwork. 
An estimated 44 million Americans were without insurance before ObamaCare enrollment started Oct. 1, 2013. An estimated 7.5 million enrolled through the government's exchanges, though some of them were people who were kicked off their old insurance plans. 
Some of the low- and middle-income earners who enrolled will be eligible for tax credits.

Pay Gape

Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez

Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks out on Brandeis decision to withdraw degree

(Bailey) She's right, everyone at Brandeis are afraid of the Muslims. In the world they out number other religions two to one which means they're the majority. I thought all Democrats in America favored the minorities, guess not!
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a staunch critic of Islam and its treatment of women who was supposed to receive an honorary degree from Brandeis University only to have it withdrawn amid criticism of her political positions, told Megyn Kelly Wednesday that she wasn't surpised by the school's decision.
"Everytime I say, 'hey, it's important that we talk about this' ... you have people like (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) who deny this," Ali said on "The Kelly File." "This should be addressed."
Ali said she wasn't surprised that the degree was rescinded, though she said she was surprised it was offered in the first place.
"I'm used to it," Ali said. "What surprised me is the decision by Brandeis, first to say we want to give you this honor, we know what you do. In the age of Google, all of this is out there, it's all public."
She went on to speculate that the decision was motivated in part by a fear of offending Muslims.
"There's always this fear that if you insult Muslims, there's going to be some kind of violent reprecussion," she said. "They're not doing their students any favors, and they're not doing their Muslim students any favors."
However, Ibrahim Cooper, a spokesman for CAIR, told Kelly on Wednesday that the organization believed Ali showed bias against Muslims in general, not just radical Islam.
"When a prestigious university like Brandeis is about to honor her and endorse her views, that's when we speak out," he said.
Ali, a member of the Dutch Parliament from 2003 to 2006, has been quoted as making comments critical of Islam. That includes a 2007 interview with Reason Magazine in which she said of the religion, "Once it's defeated, it can mutate into something peaceful. It's very difficult to even talk about peace now. They're not interested in peace. I think that we are at war with Islam. And there's no middle ground in wars."
Ali was raised in a strict Muslim family, but after surviving a civil war, genital mutilation, beatings and an arranged marriage, she renounced the faith in her 30s. She has not commented publicly on the issue of the honorary degree.
In 2007, Ali helped establish the AHA Foundation, which works to protect and defend the rights of women in the West from oppression justified by religion and culture, according to its website. The foundation also strives to protect basic rights and freedoms of women and girls. This includes control of their own bodies, access to an education and the ability to work outside the home and control their own income, the website says.
More than 85 of about 350 faculty members at Brandeis signed a letter asking for Ali to be removed from the list of honorary degree recipients. And an online petition created Monday by students at the school of 5,800 had gathered thousands of signatures from inside and outside the university as of Tuesday afternoon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

IRS employees accused of donning pro-Obama gear, urging callers to vote for him

obamagear.jpg

IRS workers in several offices have been openly supporting President Obama, including by donning pro-Obama paraphernalia and urging callers to reelect the president in 2012, according to allegations contained in a new government watchdog report. 
A report by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, released Wednesday, cited accusations that workers at a Dallas IRS office may have violated federal law by wearing pro-Obama items like shirts, stickers and buttons. The Hatch Act forbids Executive Branch workers from engaging in partisan political activity. 
The report comes as two House committees move to take action against former IRS official Lois Lerner regarding the agency's targeting of conservative groups.
The report, further fueling allegations of bias at the agency, claimed that several accusations were made against the Dallas office claiming pro-Obama gear was “commonplace” there. Employees allegedly wore Obama shirts, buttons and stickers to work and had Obama screensavers on their IRS computers.
The report said it was unclear whether this activity happened before or after the 2012 election, but an advisory was issued to Dallas employees that such activity was prohibited.
Another example cited in the report states an IRS employee in Kentucky also violated the law by touting her political views to a taxpayer during the 2012 election. According to the report, the employee told the caller she was “for” the Democrats because “Republicans already [sic] trying to cap my pension and … they’re going to take women back 40 years.”
The employee then told the taxpayer that she was not supposed to disclose her views “so you didn’t hear me saying that.” The report says the employee admitted violating the Hatch Act and will serve a 14-day suspension.  (Bailey) Wow! 14 day suspension probably with pay.
However, the Kentucky example was not the only IRS employee found to be urging taxpayers over the phone to vote for Obama. The report cites another unnamed customer service representative, who was accused of telling multiple callers in 2012 they needed to vote for Obama.
According to the report, the employee told the callers a chant based on Obama’s last name that touted his campaign and urged them to reelect him. The report does not say where the employee was located, but says the Office of Special Counsel is seeking “significant disciplinary action” against him.
The accusations come as a House committee on Wednesday voted to formally ask the Justice Department to consider criminal prosecution against Lerner. A separate committee will vote Thursday on whether to hold her in contempt of Congress for twice refusing to testify on the targeting scandal.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is an independent government watchdog that investigates claims of wrongdoing by federal employees.

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