The Washington Times reports that the Senate version of the health care bill will increase the marriage tax penalty which treats legally married couples differently than other taxpayers.
Senate Democrats’ health care bill would create a new marriage penalty by imposing a tax on individuals who make $200,000 annually but hitting married couples making just $50,000 more.
It is a little more complicated than that, but the bill penalizes married couples compared to non-married tax filers:
[A] married couple in which each earner makes $150,000 would be hit with the tax, whereas an unmarried couple living together with the same incomes would not.
Ryan Ellis, tax policy director at Americans for Tax Reform, said the new marriage penalty comes on top of an existing one that’s always been part of the payroll tax, which funds Social Security and Medicare.
Speaking of which … Americans for Tax Reform has a list of 17 taxes that are raised or created by the Senate’s health care reform bill, including a “Tax on Medical Devices Like Prosthetic Limbs, Wheelchairs, and Pacemakers.” It is not clear how health care will be less expensive as the White House promises when they are taxing health care, from pacemakers and prosethetic limbs to drugs and insurance plans. And does it really matter if health care is slightly more affordable if Americans are paying 17 new taxes, including payroll taxes, that would eat up some of the savings supposedly created by the reduction in health care costs?
Oswald Clark is the economics reporter for The Interim and an Ottawa and Boston based economist.
