Following today’s Supreme Court ruling that the President’s healthcare mandates are taxes on the American public, Congressman Mike Turner has introduced the Healthcare Tax Relief and Mandate Repeal Act (H.R. 6048). Turner’s bill repeals the taxes on individuals and employers mandated by the President’s healthcare law. Both the employer and individual mandates are to take effect in 2014 under the law. The bill has the support of 119 original cosponsors.
“This tax will have tremendous consequences on individuals, working families, businesses, and local governments. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the individual mandate alone will result in $4 billion in increased taxes a year on Americans by 2017. While Ohio families are still struggling under this economy, the President aims to place additional tax burdens on them that they simply cannot meet,” said Turner.
The employer mandate tax is estimated by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office to add approximately $10 billion in new taxes once it’s fully implemented. Those dollars instead of going towards hiring new employees would be paid to the government. Companies with at least 50 workers, which have a full-time employee who participates in a federally-subsidized insurance “exchange,” must pay a penalty for failing to offer that worker acceptable insurance on the job. Those companies which do not offer any insurance, have more than 50 employees, and have at least one employee receiving insurance subsidies, must pay a tax of $2,000 per subsidized employee. The employer mandate tax is applied to all of a company’s employees, excluding the first 30 employees, not just those that are subsidized.
“We have also heard from many businesses across Ohio and the country that the employer mandate will be devastating for them and their employees. At a time when the economy is still struggling to recover, we should be focused on reducing taxes on hardworking Americans and providing incentives for businesses to grow and create jobs. This mandate will in fact act as a disincentive to hire new employees, as it may cost companies additional taxes,” said Turner.
NOTE: A copy of Turner’s legislation can be found here.
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