IRS changes the word ‘tax’ to ‘shared responsibility penalty’ in Obamacare rules
The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) final rule on Obamacare’s individual mandate, released this week, uses the term “Shared Responsibility Payment” more than 50 times to describe the mandate’s non-compliance penalty, which the Supreme Court in 2012 defined as a tax.
photo Andrew Aliferis via Flickr
The IRS also used the term “shared responsibility penalty” in the rule, which does not identify the individual mandate as a tax.
The 75-page rule published by the IRS, which is tasked with enforcing Obamacare as the law is fully implemented in 2014, is entitled “Shared Responsibility Payment for Not Maintaining Minimum Essential Coverage.”
the IRS used the term “penalty” in at least one instance in the new document.
“A commentator expressed a concern that a United States citizen or national who resides outside the United States may be subject to the shared responsibility penalty even if the individual has health care coverage provided by a foreign health insurance,” the IRS document states on page 22. The IRS document also uses the terms “monthly penalty amount” (page 44) and “monthly penalty amounts” to refer to individuals’ hypothetical costs
under their shared responsibility payments.
Using the term “shared responsibility payment” to refer to what was legally defined as a tax might constitute an act of dishonesty.
It’s unfortunate that the author never bothered to do any research before publishing this junk of an article. The term “shared responsibility payment” comes from the statute. The IRS regulations mirror the language that Congress enacted.
[…] not maintaining minimum health insurance coverage. You can read an article summarizing the new rule here, or go here for the actual IRS rule […]
“Shared Responsibility Penalty”, is actually a good name for it since it is not a tax that is being applied equally. For all those that have insurance, they will not pay this. For those of us that do not carry insurance for what ever reason, we are the ones that will be paying, except the fact that health insurance companies will be paying a higher tax than before, so yes everyone will be taxed for this government program. I for one will be paying the penalty, as that it is more affordable than carrying insurance.
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