The IRS Is Actually Calling The ObamaCare Penalty Tax A “Shared Responsibility Payment”

Thanks to ObamaCare, Americans will have to pay a hefty penalty next year on their tax returns if they have not purchased health insurance.

It’s a tax. But not according to the Internal Revenue Service, which is opting to refer to the tax penalty as a “shared responsibility payment” in new documents advising Americans on their tax returns.

Once the tax penalty is fully phased in, uninsured Americans will owe either $2,085 or 2.5% of their adjusted gross income, whichever is higher.

Does the IRS truly believe that Americans will warm up to thousands of dollars in ObamaCare tax penalties by referring to it as a “shared responsibility payment” instead? It’s time for the White House to stop using the IRS as a vehicle for its political agenda.

From ATR:

President Obama’s Internal Revenue Service today quietly released a series of Obamacare “Health Care Tax Tips” warning Americans that they must obtain “qualifying” health insurance – as defined by the federal government – or face a “shared responsibility payment” when filing their tax returns in 2015. The term “shared responsibility payment” refers to the Obamacare individual mandate tax, one of at least seven tax hikes in the healthcare law that directly hit families making less than $250,000 per year.

In “Four Tax Facts about the Health Care Law for Individuals” the agency writes:

Your 2014 tax return will ask if you had insurance coverage or qualified for an exemption.  If not, you may owe a shared responsibility payment when you file in 2015.

In “The Individual Shared Responsibility Payment- An Overview” the agency warns Americans they must prove they were covered each and every month of the year:

For any month in 2014 that you or any of your dependents don’t maintain coverage and don’t qualify for an exemption, you will need to make an individual shared responsibility payment with your 2014 tax return filed in 2015.