Not Qualified For Obamacare's Subsidies? Just Lie --

[CG6468]

Not Qualified For Obamacare's Subsidies? Just Lie -- Govt. To Use 'Honor System' Without Verifying Your Eligibility
Avik Roy, Contributor

If you thought the delay in the employer mandate was bad news for Obamacare, just wait. On Friday, Sarah Kliff and Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post discovered that the Obama administration had buried in the Federal Register the announcement that the government won’t be able to verify whether or not applicants for Obamacare’s insurance exchange subsidies are actually qualified for the aid, in the 16 states that are setting up their own exchanges. Instead, until at least 2015, these states will be able to “accept the applicant’s attestation [regarding eligibility] without further verification.”

Without employer mandate, Feds to rely on applicant ‘attestations’

If you’ve been following the latest news around Obamacare, you know that on Tuesday evening, just before the Independence Day holiday, the White House announced that it would be delaying the implementation of the health law’s employer mandate—requiring all firms with more than 50 employees to provide health coverage to their workers—until 2015.

I, and several others at the time, said “wait a minute.” According to the law, you aren’t eligible for Obamacare’s subsidies if your employer has offered you what the government considers “affordable” coverage. But if employers are no longer going to report whether or not they’ve offered “affordable” coverage, how can the government verify whether or not workers are eligible for subsidies?

Just lie - it's what blammo does

[JohnnyReb]

I bet 70% or more of the welfare/foodstamp cases are based on lies....so why not this government freebie too.

[Dori]

This doesn't make any sense to me.  Who else knows what your income is?  Try not reporting all your income or take a tax credit you don't deserve and see how long it takes them to send you letters with penalties and interest.

I thought all this information was going to be put on your annual W-2 and reported on your tax return. 

[CG6468]

This doesn't make any sense to me.  Who else knows what your income is?  Try not reporting all your income or take a tax credit you don't deserve and see how long it takes them to send you letters with penalties and interest.

I thought all this information was going to be put on your annual W-2 and reported on your tax return.

Uh-huh. But not if you are a demoncrap.

[FlaGator]

The problem with lying is that the IRS will catch the lie during the year's filing season and will deduct the money from any return. This has been a problem with how the whole operation is to work. They will use your previous year's tax returns to determine the amount of the subsidy. If during the year your income changes (increases) then you will how the IRS the difference in the two levels of subsidies. If you no longer qualify for a subsidy then they will take the full amount from your return. If the full amount exceeds your return you will owe. If your income goes down however, the subsidy will not increase retroactively.

Sucks huh...

[Dori]

The problem with lying is that the IRS will catch the lie during the year's filing season and will deduct the money from any return. This has been a problem with how the whole operation is to work. They will use your previous year's tax returns to determine the amount of the subsidy. If during the year your income changes (increases) then you will how the IRS the difference in the two levels of subsidies. If you no longer qualify for a subsidy then they will take the full amount from your return. If the full amount exceeds your return you will owe. If your income goes down however, the subsidy will not increase retroactively.

Sucks huh...

Your employer reports your income quarterly to the state, and annually to the IRS.  What they pay for your medical will also be reported., and probably on the same form. This is nothing more than another line item on your return.  I don't get the problem with not verifying income.  Getting a subsidy is no different than a tax credit.  

[FlaGator]

Your employer reports your income quarterly to the state, and annually to the IRS.  What they pay for your medical will also be reported., and probably on the same form. This is nothing more than another line item on your return.  I don't get the problem with not verifying income.  Getting a subsidy is no different than a tax credit.  

Thank you for correcting me on this. I thought it was subsidy that reduced the amount of the premium that a person would pay at the time he purchased a insurance plan with the government paying the difference to the insuring company.

[Dori]

Thank you for correcting me on this. I thought it was subsidy that reduced the amount of the premium that a person would pay at the time he purchased a insurance plan with the government paying the difference to the insuring company.

You may atill be right.  Has anyone seen the forms yet?  As someone who has done payroll reporting for years and also doing personal tax returns, I'm just speculating how the IRS is going to handle this.  I just don't see how it's a reporting problem with the IRS and them not being able to verify income. 

Of course the government complicates everything, so how they are going to do this is anyone's guess at this point.