Obamacare: Taxpayers Must Report Personal Health ID Info to IRS
The new form will require disclosure of a taxpayer’s personal identifying health information in order to determine compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
As confirmed by IRS testimony to the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, “taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and/or making a payment”.
So why will the Obama IRS require your personal identifying health information?
Simply put, there is no way for the IRS to enforce Obamacare’s individual mandate without such an invasive reporting scheme. Every January, health insurance companies across America will send out tax documents to each insured individual. This tax document—a copy of which will be furnished to the IRS—must contain sufficient information for taxpayers to prove that they purchased qualifying health insurance under Obamacare.
This new tax information document must, at a minimum, contain: the name and health insurance identification number of the taxpayer; the name and tax identification number of the health insurance company; the number of months the taxpayer was covered by this insurance plan; and whether or not the plan was purchased in one of Obamacare’s “exchanges.”
This will involve millions of new tax documents landing in mailboxes across America every January, along with the usual raft of W-2s, 1099s, and 1098s. At tax time, the 140 million families who file a tax return will have to get acquainted with a brand new tax filing form. Six million of these families will end up paying Obamacare’s individual mandate non-compliance tax penalty.
As a service to the public, Americans for Tax Reform has released a projected version of this tax form to help families and tax specialists prepare for this additional filing requirement. Taxpayers may view the projected IRS form at www.ObamacareTaxForm.com. On the form, lines 3-4 show where taxpayers will disclose their personal health ID information.
View PDF here.
More from Americans for Tax Reform
More States Pass COVID-19 Legal Liability Protections To Protect Businesses From Frivolous and Costly Lawsuits

Even with businesses implementing COVID-19 safety precautions, they can still be the target of frivolous, costly, and time-consuming lawsuits, as many trial lawyers view the ongoing pandemic as an opportunity to line their pockets. That’s why most states have passed COVID-19 legal liability limits to protect businesses from such lawsuits.
Despite an earlier veto by Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D) of a bill that would provide COVID-19 legal liability limits for Badger State businesses, on February 23rd the Republican-led Wisconsin Legislature passed a veto-proof bill that should lead to the enactment of COVID-19 legal liability protections in Wisconsin despite the Governor’s opposition.
Legislative action is still needed in both red and blue states to protect businesses from being the target of unjustified, COVID-19-relatd lawsuits. Legislators in South Carolina recently moved to take such action, passing S. 147 in the South Carolina Senate. S. 147 provides Palmetto State businesses with protection from frivolous lawsuits related to COVID-19. That bill now moves to the South Carolina House. If approved there, the bill will head to the desk of Governor Henry McMaster (R), a Taxpayer Protection Pledge signer, who emphasized the importance of passing COVID-19 liability protections in his January 13 State of the State Address.
“Another way we can also help our small businesses is by providing them common sense protection from unfounded pandemic related liability, Governor McMaster during that address. “Currently, 32 states have adopted some degree of COVID-19 liability protections. The pandemic and the various governmental and private sector responses to it are likely to present novel questions of law and fact. Our businesses, our healthcare providers, and educational institutions should not be put at risk or competitive disadvantage through no fault of their own, particularly after following safety protocols.”
While legislation to provide COVID-19 legal liability protection moves closer to enactment in South Carolina, such liability limits are on the fast track to passage in Florida. Bills like SB 74 and SB 72 would provide COVID-19 legal liability for healthcare facilities and non-healthcare facilities. These bills are supported by over 100 local chambers of commerce across Florida. Public opinion polls show 74% of respondents support enactment of pandemic-related legal liability protections in Florida.
As states continue to loosen pandemic restrictions and people begin to return to normalcy, lawmakers must work quickly to pass COVID-19 legal liability protections. Businesses should be encouraged to open safely without having to worry about overzealous and opportunistic trial lawyers.
Photo Credit: Shawn Blanchard
More from Americans for Tax Reform
Lawmakers Should Support Rep. Jason Smith’s Pro Taxpayer Legislation

Congressman Jason Smith (R-Missouri) should be applauded for his recent pro-taxpayer legislation, HR 1380, the Permanent Tax Relief for Working Families Act. This legislation would make permanent the doubled Child Tax Credit of $2,000 per child and the $500 dependent credit established in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).
American families have seen significant tax reductions due to the Trump-Republican expansion of the child tax credit as noted in IRS 2018 Statistics of Income (SOI) data:
- In 2017, 22 million households earning $200,000 or less took the child tax credit. These households received an average tax credit of $1,213.
- In 2018, 36 million households earning $200,000 or less took the child and other dependent tax credit. These households received an average credit of $2,002.
- In 2017, 16.6 million households earning between $25,000 and $100,000 took the child tax credit. These households received an average tax credit of $1,271.
- In 2018, 23.3 million households earning between $25,000 and $100,000 took the child and other dependent tax credit. These households received an average tax credit of $1,912.
Middle class American families saw the biggest tax cut from the TCJA.
Americans with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 saw their tax liability drop by an average of 13 percent, twice as much as Americans with income above $1 million, who saw their tax liability drop by an average of 5.8 percent.
In Rep. Smith’s 8th District of Missouri, his constituents benefited from the expanded Child Tax Credit.
- In 2017, 48,490 households in the 8th District of Missouri earning $200,000 or less took the child tax credit. These households received and average tax credit of $1,244.
- In 2018, 72,170 households in the 8th District of Missouri earning $200,000 or less took the child tax credit. These households received and average tax credit of $1,996.
- In 2017, 38,730 households in the 8th District of Missouri earning between $25,000 and $100,000 took the child tax credit. These households received an average tax credit of $1,309.
- In 2018, 51, 260 households in the 8th District of Missouri earning between $25,000 and $100,000 took the child tax credit. These households received an average tax credit of $1,989.
Without any action from Congress, the Child Tax Credit will decrease from $2,000 to $1,000 after 2025. If Members of Congress are serious about providing relief for working parents, they should support the Permanent Tax Relief for Working Families Act.
Photo Credit: Supermac1961
Connecticut's HB 6450 Would Put 91,000 Lives At Risk

Americans for Tax Reform today submitted testimony in opposition to Connecticut House Bill 6450 which bans the use of flavors in life-saving reduced risk tobacco alternatives such as e-cigarettes.
ATR Director of Consumer Issues, Tim Andrews, wrote: “This bill would have a disastrous impact on public health throughout the State, and lead to a clear increase in tobacco-related deaths in Connecticut.”
Andrews noted the growing body of research showing vapor products are an effective harm reduction tool for adults looking to quit smoking: “Extrapolating from a large-scale analysis by the US’s leading cancer researchers and coordinated by Georgetown University Medical Centre, vapor products would save over 91,000 lives if a majority of Connecticut smokers made the switch to vaping. This bill places lives in jeopardy by reducing access to these life-saving products.”
HB 6450 would also have a significant impact on the health of high schoolers. Andrews noted that “In San Francisco, a city-wide ban on flavored e-cigarettes and vapor products, as proposed in HB 6450, had no effect on usage among youths. To the contrary, after nearly a decade of steady decline in youth use of combustible cigarettes, there has been an increase in cigarette smoking among youths in San Francisco since the flavor ban was enacted. In cities that have maintained looser regulations regarding reduced harm tobacco products, youth combustible cigarette use has continued to decline.”
The full testimony can be accessed here.
Photo Credit: jglazer75
Massachusetts Small Businesses Face Surprise Tax Bill

Massachusetts small businesses have struggled under the weight of the pandemic-driven downturn. Data from the Opportunity Insights Recovery Tracker shows that the number of small businesses open is down 37% in Massachusetts since the start of 2020. These statistics likely would have been much worse if federal lawmakers didn’t enact the Paycheck Protection Program as part of the 2020 CARES Act to provide aid to struggling small businesses.
Approximately 120,000 Massachusetts businesses utilized Paycheck Protection Program federal loans to survive a sudden, once-in-a-century pandemic that shut their businesses down through no fault of their own. Once they established the PPP, federal lawmakers made clear that if a company took the loan and maintained normal operations, they would forgive the loan, and the IRS would treat the loan as a tax-free grant. Beacon Hill legislators have so far failed to do the same, and Bay State employers are facing the prospect of surprise state income tax bills this spring as a result
Due to the way the Massachusetts tax code conforms to the federal tax code, the legislature must take action to ensure PPP loans – which were a lifeline to many employers and advertised as tax-free – are not treated as taxable income for small businesses at the state level. Failure to do so would result in many struggling companies facing a surprise income tax bill at a time when they can least afford it.
Massachusetts businesses now face a March 15 deadline before their tax bills are due. A series of legislation with bipartisan support have attracted over 100 co-sponsors to finally fix this egregious error before it’s too late. However, Beacon Hill leadership has remained far more interested in expensive new climate regulations than protecting small businesses. Questions remain over whether leadership will bring this to a vote. Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka must act now to move a clean bill forward and protect small businesses from an expense they could never have expected to pay.
By clicking here, Massachusetts residents can reach out to their representatives and state senators and urge them to avoid state taxation of pandemic relief by supporting SD172, HD484, HD1338, and HD1965.
Pipeliner: “This is our livelihood. We don’t consider it a temporary job. We consider it as our career.”

Anthony Fetters is another American hit by President Biden's foolish shutdown of the KeystoneXL pipeline. He appeared on Fox News Channel and explained the impact of Biden's decision:
“This is our livelihood. We don’t consider it a temporary job, we consider it as our career. The pump stations that we were constructing for TC Energy this year alone employed several hundred people with several hundred more to come. And once the pipeline got started, the main line would have employed several thousand more. So the impact to us pipeliners was huge.”
Arizona Seizing Opportunity to Protect Individual Rights, Improve Public Safety

This session, legislators in the Grand Canyon State are working hard to improve the state’s criminal justice system and protect the rights and property of Arizonans.
Overdue civil asset forfeiture reform, HB 2810, is on the move and through the House already, sailing through with 57 yes votes to only 2 nays. Now, it is making its way through the Senate, which passed a similar bill last year, only to see it blocked by House Democrats in a bizarre move.
Under current asset forfeiture laws, Arizonans can have their property seized by law enforcement without a crime having been committed. They can also lose their property if it was used in a criminal activity without their knowledge – authorities do not have to prove the property owner knew. Combine these issues with a difficult-to-navigate process for citizens trying to get their property back, and the deck is inappropriately stacked against Arizonans.
HB 2810 would require a conviction for property to be forfeited, so there is actually a crime that has been committed – and it makes the appeals process less onerous, and more clear.
The House also sent HB 2713 to the Senate, legislation that expands earned release credits for people in prison. Since Texas took up criminal justice reform more than a decade ago to the federal First STEP Act, conservatives have recognized that better preparing people to contribute to society upon their release is the way to go. The vast majority of those in the system will be released one day regardless, it is best for their futures, and public safety, when they are able to find work and improve their communities.
Passing HB 2713 should be a big priority for the legislature, and Arizonans. It promises to address an overly expensive prison system, while boosting public safety.
But wait, there’s more! The Arizona Senate has passed legislation, SB 1551, to end driver’s license suspension as a means to strong arm people who owe court debt.
Suspending a license for dangerous driving is more than appropriate, but suspending someone’s license because they can’t afford a fine is wrong and counterproductive.
It can cost someone their job by significantly limiting their transportation options, or make it difficult for them to look for a job in the first place. Without income, it only becomes harder for someone to pay off the debt they owe. This bad situation can get worse, as desperation may result in someone committing the offense of driving without a license, this can spark a downward cycle as a new offense is piled on top of whatever prior offense led to the initial fine and court debt.
Arizonans would be much better off if people weren’t being put in this absurd Catch 22 situation. Further, courts are not likely making much, if any additional money with this tactic.
Results from California, one of the early states to reform driver’s license suspension, show that courts are now receiving more money because people are better able to pay their fines if they can drive to work. California’s courts reported a 9% increase in collections on newly issued traffic tickets following reform.
Photo Credit: WikiMedia
More from Americans for Tax Reform
Told You So! Study Proves Flavored Vaping Products Are Critical to Quitting Cigarette Smoking

The world’s most prestigious peer reviewed academic journal dedicated to nicotine and tobacco research recently published a study examining the association between usage of flavored vapor products and progression towards quitting smoking.
Ten leading experts on public health, tobacco control, and cancer prevention studied the behaviors of smokers in the United States, Canada, England, and Australia. Their findings are remarkable and prove true what has long been asserted by advocates of reduced risk alternatives to traditional cigarettes.
Here are the crucial takeaways:
- “Use of fruit and other sweet flavored e-liquids is positively related to smokers’ transition away from cigarettes”
- Smokers who use sweet flavored vapor products were 43% more likely to quit smoking than those who used unflavored or tobacco flavored vapor products
- Among those who quit smoking, 48% quit nicotine use entirely
- Users of sweet flavored products who quit cigarette smoking were no more likely to continue using nicotine products than those who used unflavored or tobacco flavored products
This study is a major contribution to the growing body of scientific research that illustrates the importance of flavors for adults seeking to quit smoking. As state legislatures across the United States consider bans on flavored vapor products, lawmakers must accept the science on vaping and promote policies that encourage smokers to quit cigarette use, rather than prohibit products proven vital to smoking cessation.
More from Americans for Tax Reform
Get Bureaucrats Out of Craft Beer in Minnesota

Momentum is building behind a bill that would deregulate growler sales in Minnesota. A “growler” is a 64oz reusable container that beer fans use to take home draft beer from their favorite breweries. Currently in Minnesota breweries that produce over 20,000 barrels per Year are restricted from using these industry-standard beer-to-go containers.
Representative Jim Nash sponsored H.F. 1050/S.F. 874, which would end the restriction on big breweries selling growlers. Representative Nash recently stated “It's finally time to 'Free the Growler' and stop punishing five successful breweries in our state while removing a hurdle many growing breweries may face in the coming years”, Representative Nash is optimistic about the bills future, “Beer is bipartisan and we will have bipartisan support on our proposal in the House and Senate. We need lawmakers to overcome the resistance to change that has kept Minnesota's liquor laws stuck in the 1940s."”
As craft beer continues to grow and establish a permanent foot hold in the market, many states have a game of catch up to play in terms of modernizing their laws to better reflect the current realities of the beer market. Industries can change significantly quicker than the laws governing them can. State by state quirks and out dated laws stifle the beer market, such as in Massachusetts where breweries are only allowed to fill growlers that they manufactured. In California the laws were the same as Massachusetts, until a recent reform which allowed customers to merely display a sticker of the brewery on the growler instead of requiring a custom receptacle just for that establishment.
Brewery owners argue that the restriction dis-incentivizes breweries to expand and hurts the industry as a whole. Jim Diley, The co-founder of Fulton Beer said “Year after Year, we've come back and have not seen success in moving that cap…. The bottom line is we are a family-run, locally-owned group of breweries that are seeking commonsense change."
Supporters of this type of legislation should look at COVID as an opportunity to modernize laws governing alcohol sales. Rep Jim Nash is rallying support in his state to get rid of these obtuse restrictions. Eliminating arbitrary hoops that small businesses must jump through is a far better strategy for economic recovery than more government handouts. Breweries and small businesses across the country have been some of the hardest hit by the economic complications caused by COVID. This legislation will only serve to aid their recovery.
Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Craft Beers
More from Americans for Tax Reform
Ronald Reagan Monument Approved in Ukraine

In the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a monument dedicated to Ronald Reagan has been approved for construction.
The project was initiated by the Ukrainian Economic Freedoms Foundation. The Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, founded by Grover Norquist, endorsed the project in a letter to the UEFF.
The Reagan monument will be placed on the former site of a statue of Communist criminal Dmytro Manuilsky. That statue was destroyed in 2014 during the Revolution of Dignity. The site of the Reagan monument is located at the intersection of Str. Lypska and Instytytska, right next to Parliament and government buildings. On the other side of the street is a monument to the author of the first Ukrainian constitution.
The UEFF said in a statement:
The Ukrainian Economic Freedoms Foundation initiated the establishment of the monument to the 40th US President Ronald Reagan to honor his contribution to the victory of the democratic world in the Cold War. This victory has given many countries of Central and Eastern Europe including Ukraine the chance to once again assert their sovereignty and to choose a democratic path of development.
Besides, it is Ronald Reagan who applied maximum efforts in due time for formation of ideology of tax cuts, protecting the rights of private property, the importance of political and economic competition and various freedoms around the world. The internal policies of his Cabinet were an example of the overcoming the economic crisis namely through liberalization and reduction of regulatory intervention of the state into the real sector of economy.
The new monument will depict Reagan "breaking through" the Berlin Wall. One side will be blank and focus on Reagan, and the back side will have various "graffiti" of historical figures and words like "liberty" and "freedom." This artwork is the creation of Ukrainian artist Katib Mamedov.
The monument, while recognizing Reagan's achievements, also serves as an "act of gratitude" for the U.S. erecting the Holodomor Memorial to Victims of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide and a monument to Taras Schevchenko in Washington D.C.
"In general, the monument to Reagan in Kyiv will allow to strengthen friendly ties between the countries and fairly express gratitude to the United States for supporting aspirations of Ukrainians to freedoms," said the UEEF.
Since 2011, 11 monuments to Reagan have been built across Eastern Europe, such as in Sofia, Budapest, and Tbilisi.
There are currently 168 Reagan dedications worldwide: 150 domestic dedications in 33 states and the District of Columbia, and 18 international dedications in nine countries including Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, England, Ireland, Grenada and the Republic of Georgia.
One of the most recent dedications came in June 2019 in Berlin, as the site of the “Tear Down This Wall” speech was named the Ronald Reagan Terrace and a bronze statue was erected.
Founded by ATR president Grover Norquist in 1997, the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project is committed to preserving the legacy of the 40th President of the United States throughout the nation and abroad. The project encourages the naming of buildings, roads, landmarks, and schools after the late President, with a long-term goal of a dedication in every county in all 50 states.
The RRLP also works with governors to declare Feb. 6 (Reagan's birthday) as Ronald Reagan Day. This year 28 governors declared "Ronald Reagan Day" in their state.
If you want to create a Reagan dedication in your community, contact Bailey Drouant at bdrouant@atr.org
Photo Credit: National Archives
More from Americans for Tax Reform
Biden Keystone Order Hits Small Business Hard: “Over $3,000 in monthly revenue that was gone literally within 48 hours.”

President Biden's order to kill the KeystoneXL pipeline is not only hitting pipeline workers. Small businesses along the pipeline route are also being hit hard.
South Dakota resident Tricia Burns owns a gym in Philip, South Dakota:
"We lost 45 memberships -- that's over $3,000 in monthly revenue that was gone literally within 48 hours. We had negotiated contracts with security companies that were coming in to secure the pipeline. That would have brought us another 120 memberships."