September 11, 201 - New York Times
IRS Clarifies Health Law Role to
Skeptical Republicans
By REUTERS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Internal Revenue Service on
Tuesday assured congressional lawmakers that agents would play no role in
enforcing the controversial requirement that Americans buy insurance under
President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul.
"IRS revenue agents will not be involved. There will
not be audits," IRS Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller told a subcommittee of the
tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in the Republican-controlled House of
Representatives.
The law, passed in 2010 and upheld by the U.S. Supreme
Court, will charge individuals a fee, or tax, if they fail to buy insurance
starting in 2014.
Opponents of the healthcare measure have focused on
that requirement, with some Republicans saying they worry the IRS, the agency
responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement, will harass people who
fail to buy insurance.
"In most cases, taxpayers will file their tax returns
reporting their health insurance coverage, and-or making a payment, and there
will be no need for further interactions with the IRS," Miller said.
Under the law, Americans who lack health insurance
will have to pay an annual fee to the IRS of $95, or 1 percent of taxable
household income, starting in 2014.
By 2016, that will rise to $695 per person, with a cap
that equals the greater of $2,085 per family or 2.5 percent of household income.
About 1 percent of the population will be charged for
not buying insurance, government watchdogs have estimated.
Republicans questioned Miller about how many new
agents would be needed to apply the law, and whether the agency would be able to
keep up its core mission of tax collection.
At the hearing, the latest in a series on the
healthcare law, staff for Representative Charles Boustany, the Republican who
heads the subcommittee, handed out a paper blasting the law as an "explosion of
regulatory burdens."
The law contains a number of new tax provisions, from
the so-called individual mandate to tax credits for small businesses and levies
on the wealthy to help pay for coverage.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney this
week said that although he wants to repeal the law, he would keep popular
provisions such as some related to protecting people with pre-existing medical
conditions.
(The story has been refiled to state Romney's full
name in paragraph 12)
(Editing by Xavier Briand)