Higher Medicare Taxes on High-Income Taxpayers in the 2010 Health Reform Legislation
Higher Medicare taxes on high-income
taxpayers in the 2010 health reform legislation
High-income taxpayers will be hit with two big
tax hikes under the recently enacted health overhaul legislation: a tax
increase on wages and a new levy on investments.
To help offset the cost of providing health
insurance to uninsured Americans, the new law imposes an additional 0.9%
Medicare tax on wages above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married
couples filing jointly. In addition, for higher-income households, the new law
adds a 3.8% tax on unearned income, including interest, dividends, capital
gains and other investment income.
This blog post will serve as an overview of these two
tax increases. Please call our offices for details of how the new changes may
affect you or your business.
Higher Medicare tax on wages and
self-employment income.The
Medicare tax is the primary source of financing for Medicare's hospital
insurance trust fund, which pays hospital bills for beneficiaries who are 65
and older or disabled.
Under current law, wages are subject to a 2.9%
Medicare tax. Workers and employers pay 1.45% each. Self-employed people pay
both halves of the tax (but are allowed to deduct half of this amount for
income tax purposes).
Unlike the payroll tax for Social Security,
which applies to earnings up to an annual ceiling ($106,800 for 2010), the
Medicare tax is levied on all of a worker's wages without limit.
Under the provisions of the new law, which take
effect in 2013, most taxpayers will continue to pay the 1.45% Medicare tax, but
single people earning more than $200,000 and married couples earning more than
$250,000 will be taxed at an additional 0.9% (2.35% in total) on the excess
over those base amounts. Self-employed persons will pay 3.8% on earnings over
those thresholds.
It should be noted that the $200,000/$250,000
thresholds aren't indexed for inflation, so it is likely that more and more
people will be subject to the higher tax in coming years.
Employers will collect the extra 0.9% on wages
exceeding $200,000 just as they would withhold Medicare taxes and remit them to
the IRS. However, companies won't be responsible for determining whether a
worker's combined income with his or her spouse made them subject to the tax.
Instead, some employees will have to remit
additional Medicare taxes when they file income tax returns, and some will get
a tax credit for amounts overpaid. Married couples with combined incomes
approaching $250,000 will have to keep tabs on both spouses' pay to avoid an
unexpected tax bill.
Medicare tax extended to investments.Under current law, the Medicare tax only applies to wages
and self-employment income. Beginning in 2013, a Medicare tax will, for the
first time, be applied to investment income. A new 3.8% tax will be imposed on
net investment income of single taxpayers with AGI above $200,000 and joint
filers over $250,000 (unindexed).
Net investment income is interest, dividends,
royalties, rents, gross income from a trade or business involving passive activities,
and net gain from disposition of property (other than property held in a trade
or business). Net investment income is reduced by the deductions that are
allocable to that income. However, the new tax won't apply to income in
tax-deferred retirement accounts such as 401(k) plans.
Because the new tax on investment income won't
take effect for three years, that leaves more time for Congress and the IRS to
tinker with it. So we can expect lots of refinements and “clarifications”
between now and when the tax actually takes hold in 2013.
I hope this information is helpful. If you would
like more details about these provisions or any other aspect of the new law,
please don't hesitate to call.
