ACA tax return fines.

[outside]

http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/05/news/economy/obamacare-tax-refund/index.html?iid=Lead

Deana Ard wants her tax refund as soon as possible. She says she files her return in mid-January every year and receives her refund within two weeks.

This year, Ard said her refund is taking longer -- and she's blaming Obamacare.
Ard, who went without health insurance last year, doesn't mind having to pay a $160 Obamacare penalty as part of her 2014 tax return. But she says her $7,124 refund is on hold, and the IRS won't tell her why.=snip=

The fine is only $160.00 out of $7,124.00 tax refund

Anybody else going with the fine over getting health insurance?

[MohRokTah]

1. Her tax return is on hold because the IRS funding cuts by the Congress forced them to warn...

tax refunds are going to be late this year.

Congress cut their funding and now they don't have enough money to process all the refunds in the schedule they did so in the past.

[FSogol]

2. But the Republicans know that uninformed voters, like the one in the article will blame Obama. n/t

[outside]

4. Not my point.

Her fine for not having health insurance is only $160.00. IMO the fine should be much more if she getting over $7000.00 back.

[MohRokTah]

5. EVerybody's fine for not having health insurance is only $160.00.

[handmade34]

7. from healthcare.gov

$95 per person for the year ($47.50 per child under 18). The maximum penalty per family using this method is $285.

[outside]

27. I don't get it.

How do they come up with $160.00?

[marlakay]

32. It's the first year fines go up next year nt

[PoliticAverse]

34. It's the greater of $95 or 1% of your household income above the filing threshold...

http://www.irs.gov/Affordable-Care-Act/Individuals-and-Families/ACA-Individual-Shared-Responsibility-Provision-Calculating-the-Payment

[HereSince1628]

6. Why? Did she recieve health services worth more than that?

Is it just that her non-conformity should be punished more harshly? Because if it is I think the penalty schedule increases every year going forward.

[Egnever]

19. Why?

The 7k figure is meaningless, we have no way of knowing how that figure came about. She may be having way too much taken out of her check causing such a large return.

Also the fines increase each year so next year it will be higher.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

25. The fine has nothing to do with the size of her refund

Nor should it.

[JI7]

28. that doesn't make any sense

[WillowTree]

13. Hmmmmm.......I wonder how they decide whose to hold and whose to go ahead and process.

I received my refund within 7 days.

[MohRokTah]

14. The earlier you file, the earlier you'll get the refund.

The longer tax season goes, the longer it'll take to get refunds.

People who wait to the end will probably get their refunds some time in late June or early July from what I heard.

[WillowTree]

16. But when the OP says this person filed her taxes in "mid-January".......

.......and that her refund is being held, you said that it's because refunds are being delayed due to funding issues. Yet I filed my federal taxes on 23 January and had my refund in my account on the thirtieth. So your last response doesn't really address how they decide whose refunds are being processed immediately (as mine was) and whose are being held up (as is the case with the person described in the OP).

[Agschmid]

21. Same.

[JaneyVee]

20. She filed in mid January and IRS isn't accepting until Jan.21st

[H. Cromwell]

24. Not late here...

my daughter e filed her return 7 or 8 days ago and it is in her checking account today.

[Autumn]

3. My neighbor come over yesterday, she filed her taxes and got a 200 dollar penalty

because even though she signed up through Connect for Health CO and gave them all her financial information the subsidy she got for her insurance last year was too much. She should have paid a 100 dollars more per month for her insurance, this a a young woman making 11 dollars an hour. She's going to drop her insurance next month.

[Andy823]

10. One emergency could cost her thousands

I know it happened to me and my wife. Over $22,000.00 just a few weeks ago, and now I have to get some tests and possible surgery which will add thousands more to what was already billed. We have already met the deductible, and out of pocket expenses and will end up paying $1,000.00 out of our own pockets, which is a lot better than if we had not had insurance. I thank the ACA for this, and president Obama.

[Autumn]

11. She makes 11 dollars an hour. She says she can't afford to pay more than she was paying.

She hopes that the President in 2016 will do away with Obamacare. You hit young people where they hurt and you can't expect them to GOTV, certainly not for Democrats when the republicans have been telling them all along how bad this is and how it will hurt Americans.

She was excited about having insurance that she could afford. She bought her insurance through Connect for Health after giving them her financial information they set it up and her subsidy was based on her income, until she filed taxes and found her subsidy was too much.

[tammywammy]

8. She needs to adjust her withholding

She's giving an interest free loan to the government when she could be receiving more per pay period.

[FSogol]

9. Many people do that on purpose because they don't have the discipline to save.

[WillowTree]

15. I over-withhold, though not that much and not because I don't have the discipine to save.

I just don't ever want to have to pay at the end of the year. Paranoia born of I-don't-know-what.

[FSogol]

17. Economically, it is better to have your money sooner than letting the government use it, but

but I understand why people do that.

A $7K+ refund is really excessive.

[WillowTree]

18. Oh, I agree. The fact that I over-withhold was.......

.......a source of angst for my Father for years. These days I console myself.......or maybe just con myself.......with the fact that interest rates are so ridiculously low that even if my refund was $7,000, and it's nowhere near that much, the interest that I lost on it wouldn't buy me a Big Mac.

[H. Cromwell]

26. I am guessing

she didn't have 7k withheld (making $11/hr). She probably has children and gets deductions etc. that gets her much more than she paid into the IRS, hence a 7k refund.

[shanti]

31. Really!

I've never in my 59 years received a tax refund of more than $2000, EVER, even when married, and it astounds me to see such high refunds.

[marlakay]

33. I am total opposite I do my own taxes and take out

The least amount possible, I usually owe between $100-200 each year.

I can't afford to live on less, we are retired.

[Autumn]

12. I thought maybe that the child tax credit is what made her refund so large.

I always have to pay. Last year one dollar. I bought turbo tax to do my taxes.

[Dont call me Shirley]

30. Probably the Earned Income Credit

[sabrina 1]

22. My neighbor just found out he has to pay a fine for not having coverage. He has never had

coverage, can't afford it. As a farmer, he takes care of himself, when necessary, he goes to a local doctor and pays.

He wasn't aware of any of this. I looked to see if he can get an exemption, but they fall into the category where they earn just enough to have to file an income tax return.

A lot of Americans are in for a shock I'm afraid.

We NEED a National HC system! Everyone pays into it, far less than these private ins policies, like SS, and everyone is covered. No forcing of people to buy a commercial commodity.

Obama was totally opposed to this during the 2008 campaign. He explained his opposition this way: 'If we could solve homelessness by forcing everyone to buy a house' and he was right.

I opposed this forever, when Romney was pushing it and throughout the debate on HC.

Now my neighbors are less money they simply can't afford, and get nothing in return.

Wish I could get Congress to force people to buy a product I am selling. How do you do that??

[taught_me_patience]

38. He takes care of himself until he has a coronary.

Then all those who pay insurance and outrageous hospital fees get to pick up his bill.

[sabrina 1]

39. That's a Republican argument, did you know that? And we got a Republican HC system, just as they

wanted for decades. MANDATED INS is not a Democratic policy, it never was. As a Liberal, I have no problem 'paying for those who can't afford it if I can afford it'.

So now Democrats have adapted the Republican, self serving mantra of 'just pull yourself up by your bootstraps'. I'm trying to figure out exactly when it happened. I know it has been very recent.

Don't worry about him taking anything from anyone, he never has. Shame on us as Democrats to allow the selfishness and soulessness of the Right to infect our side of the aisle.

I've happily, to put in Right Wing terms, 'picked up the bill' for sick people who couldn't afford it and can't imagine adapting that attitude towards other human beings.

Especially since NO ONE had to do that IF we had grabbed the opportunity of a lifetime and instituted a National HC system starting in Jan 2009.

[sweetapogee]

23. from the linked article

"The IRS says refunds are not being delayed. "More than 9 of 10 refunds are issued in less than 21 days," the agency said in a statement to CNNMoney. "Refunds are going out under our normal processes, and there are no systemic delays specifically related to [Affordable Care Act] issues."

Perhaps Ms. Ard is in the process of being audited.

[dembotoz]

29. yah me thinks she doood something wrong and the irs is "interested"

that sucks big time

been there done that

[DesMoinesDem]

35. I don't think you understand tax refunds. They aren't proportional to the amount you earn.

[Thor_MN]

36. Maybe she didn't efile and didn't request direct deposit

So she's waiting on processing of paper forms by a Republican underfunded tax department and delivery of a paper check by a posat service hampered by Republican policies...

There's isn't enough info to know and probably too much idle speculation...