Have you seen the movie 2012 starring John Cusack? Not me. I don’t need to see a movie that’ll further depress me until the 2012 presidential election…
But here’s the thing: American is drowning in debt, and Americans will drown in taxes. Very soon. Like next year, if members of Congress do nothing.
The Bush tax cuts expire the end of this year — that’s less than six months away. Democrats in control of the House and Senate so far show no intention of extending those tax cuts.
My dear Americans, prepare yourself for the “tax tsunami,” as Investor’s Business Daily calls it. I want to call it the “taxpocalypse.” Not only do the Bush tax cuts go away, but thanks to ObamaCare, American taxpayers are going to see thinner wallets in order to fund this monster health care “reform”:
The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. “This provision of ObamaCare,” according to ATR, “increases the additional tax on nonmedical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10% to 20%, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10%.”
Brand Name Drug Tax. Makers and importers of brand-name drugs will be liable for a tax of $2.5 billion in 2011. The tax goes to $3 billion a year from 2012 to 2016, then $3.5 billion in 2017 and $4.2 billion in 2018. Beginning in 2019 it falls to $2.8 billion and stays there. And who pays the new drug tax? Patients, in the form of higher prices.
Economic Substance Doctrine. ATR reports that “The IRS is now empowered to disallow perfectly legal tax deductions and maneuvers merely because it judges that the deduction or action lacks ‘economic substance.’”
That’s not the end of it, either. Changes to the AMT, business accounting, educational tax credits, penalties for no health care insurance, etc. — well, good luck trying to stay afloat in a new sea of taxes.
