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As companies large and small begin analyzing the impact of the recently enacted (2,400 page) healthcare bill, Congress is stirring up controversy with mixed signals to the business community on how the IRS will be enforcing compliance and putting pressure on large corporations who have announced negative earnings impact from the bill.
Read these interesting pieces form the Wall Street Journal:
The Tax Police – IRS’s Role in Monitoring Healthcare: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304370304575152181030785348.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion
Corporate Impact and Barney Frank’s Pressure:
The following was recently posted by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) http://www.johnboehner.house.gov/blog/?postid=179018
Silence! DemsTrying to Bully Employers on ObamaCare’s Job-Killing Impact
Posted by Press Office on March 30, 2010 Washington Democrats want the nation’s employers to think twice about alerting their workers, customers, shareholders, and the publicat large to the financial impact of President Obama’s new health care law, whether it’s AT&T ($1 billion), Deere & Co. ($150 million), Caterpillar ($100 million), 3M ($90 million), AK Steel ($31 milllion), and Valero Energy (up to $20 million.) The White House blog has been used to question the credibility of these statements. A Cabinet secretary called these public disclosures “irresponsible.” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wants to hold hearings and issue subpoenas. These scare tactics are not surprising. Last fall, the Obama Administration issued a gag order designed to keep seniors in the dark about ObamaCare’s massive Medicare cuts. America’s workers have a right to know how this new law will affect them. As do the millions of retirees who may lose their drug benefits. As do the customers who may have to pay higher prices to cover these losses. As do the small businesses who rely on these companies for telecommunications (AT&T), office supplies (3M), gasoline (Valero), and equipment (Caterpillar, John Deere)? These are the very valid questions House Republicans are discussing with their constituents this week while Democrats are attacking companies having a hard enough time trying to survive this recession without Washington getting in the way.
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Posts Tagged ‘healthcare tax’
Healthcare Bill and Related Tax Increases Inch Along
Friday, March 19th, 2010http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/19/health-care-whip-count-li_n_505709.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2220222/
The $940 Billion healthcare bill bill continues to move towards a contentious vote on Sunday. 216 votes are needed in the House to pass the Senate version of the healthcare bill which was passed a few months ago.
The front loaded tax collections will offer the administration with some nice window dressing for the budget deficit and the Social Security funding. However, if this bill moves forward, it will surely have a negative impact on job retention and creation due to the higher cost of labor.
Many of the healthcare benefits will not kick in until 2014, and it is difficult to project whether cost trends will drop or increase during this period, since the pricing of medical procedures, drugs and other related costs are fairly elastic in the healthcare arena.
If the House passes the Senate bill, expect both the House and Senate to begin the reconcilaition process to sidestep the supermajority requirement. To review the proposed Recociliation Provisons to modify the previously adopted Senate Healthcare Bill, see the House link below for details:
http://www.rules.house.gov/amendment_details.aspx?NewsID=4609
Caterpillar Tractor is projecting to incur an increase of 20% in their medical insurance premiums – or $100 million – to cover their 44,000 employees and retirees.
Year-End Tax Planning and Job Creation – Maximizing Refunds in a Tough Economy
Friday, December 4th, 2009Sign up for my daily/ weekly tax update Twitter feeds at:
http://twitter.com/taxcredits_cpa
Before we get into year-end tax planning, let’s focus on job creation for a moment. President Obama held his White House “Jobs Summit” – without a few key business organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which represents over 3 million companies and over 115 million employees.
Another stimulus package is being discussed, but a focus on job creation and tax reduction will be the best short-term strategy. There are numerous federal and state programs which allow employers to claim credits ranging from $500 to $15,000 per “qualified” employee. The Obama Administration needs to focus on refundable hiring credits, an investment tax credit for purchasing equipment and incentives for loaning funds or making equity investments in small businesses.
For a full library of articles focused on these tax incentive programs, please click on the following link:
2009 federal and state tax changes provide huge opportunities for both business and individual taxpayers to minimize their 2009 tax liabilities and in many cases optimize refunds from prior years.
With some effort before year-end, March and April 15th can be much less taxing — but advance planning is necessary.
Businesses and individual taxpayers have had to navigate a challenging economic landscape for at least the last two years. In addition to trying and maintain revenue levels while paring down costs, businesses and homeowners have found their financing options dramatically limited.
Therefore it is critically important for both businesses and individual taxpayers to carefully plan now for their year-end to ensure that they minimize their federal and state tax obligations – and insome cases – secure refunds for prior tax years.
As more fully detailed in the attached links to a variety of articles addressing topics raanging from:
- How to maximize tax refunds via the carryback of 2009 tax losses – including the recently passed 5 year federal carryback option for all businesses:
http://www.blakechristian.com/blog/?s=tax+loss
- How to maximize write-off of wholly and partially worthless bad debts
- Taking full advantage of federal and state depreciation and immediate write-off of equipment and other capital expenditures:
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Claiming the wide variety of federal and state green/ eco-credits:
http://www.blakechristian.com/green_tax_incentives.html
- Claiming valuable federal and state Location-Based Investment Credits (LBICs) for hiring employees and making capital investments in any one of the 8,500+ incentive tax Zones. There are over 42 state Enterprise Zones in California which can often eliminate taxes in the highest rate state in the country:
http://www.cpa2biz.com/Content/media/PRODUCER_CONTENT/Newsletters/Articles_2008/CorpTax/EZstreet.jsp
2009 was an extremely active year for tax legislation and while federal changes were often beneficial for corporations and individuals, state changes, particularly California, often resulted in higher rates, less deductions and accelerated tax payment requirements.
For a full library of corporate tax articles log onto the AICPA Corporate Taxation Insider Newsletter:
http://www.cpa2biz.com/search/results.jsp?N=79&mode=content
For a wider variety of business and individual tax and economic articles, news and otherlinks, please click onto my personal website:
Our comprehensive year-end tax planning guide can be accessed at:
