August 20th, 2012, 4:24 am
I can't remember the last time I met a person who makes a constant weekly w2 salary or hourly income that is predictable six months in advance. It has to be a small percentage of people. People pay tax based on their income 3 1/2 months after the end of the year. It takes the whole year plus 3 1/2 months to figure out how much they made the previous year. Are they also going to get until April 15th of the following year to pay for health insurance for the previous year?I can see them getting a check or writing a check on April 15th to make up for any amount they overpaid or underpaid for health insurance the previous year. Except if people lose their jobs, or their variable income is lower than expected, they won't have the money to overpay. They will need to do something right away, e.g. file a tax form every month as their incomes change. And if their variable income is higher than expected, they won't have had their extra health cost withheld. They will spend all their money on beer, and they won't be able to write a check for the $500 they underpaid for health insurance the previous year before their incomes were known to be higher. So you will have millions of low-income people going on IRS payment plans, and then dropping out of the documented workforce to escape the compliance and other costs.
Last edited by
farmer on August 19th, 2012, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.