William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

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Why is this Topic Important to Wealth Managers? Reviews the National Health Care Legislation’s revenues and expense provisions.  Discusses one area in particular where high income earners are subject to additional tax liability provided by the new law.

There are many new questions being raised by the national health care legislation that was passed into law earlier this year.  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, [1] and the, Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010,[2] created a number of significant changes to the landscape of the health care system in the United States.  The total cost of the program, is estimated at approximately $356 Billion dollars over the ten year period from 2010-2019. [3]However, revenue projections from taxes incorporated into the legislation are actually estimated upwards of $437 Billion dollars over that same ten year period. [4]

Now that we can reasonably be assured the health care bill’s cost is properly allocated and encumbered, let’s see how and where the revenue generating provisions will affect American taxpayers.

The largest single line item that will contribute to the funding of the health care legislation is a new surtax for Medicare.  Estimates that over $200 billion will be raised over 10 years, is a burden carried by only a small percentage of high income taxpayers, estimated at approximately the top 2% of all taxpayers, or those taxpayers who will earn more than $200,000 or $250,000 filing jointly. [5] This means approximately 98% of the population will not be required to contribute to the new surtax with regards to Medicare.  To read this article excerpted above, please access www.AdvisorFYI.com