Health Care Reform Act's 3.8% Tax - Know Your Facts

"The PPACA creates a new Code Section 1411, which will generally impose a 3.8 percent tax on the lesser of "net investment income" or the excess of modified adjusted gross income over a "threshold amount" (generally, $250,000 for taxpayers filing a joint return, $125,000 for married taxpayers filing a separate return and $200,000 in all other cases). Net investment income generally means the excess of (i) interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, rents, income from passive activities, income from trading financial instruments and commodities, and gain from the disposition of certain non-business property, over (ii) allowable deductions properly allocable to such income. In determining the amount of net investment income, special rules apply with respect to dispositions of equity interests in certain partnerships and S corporations, and to distributions from certain qualified plans. This additional tax applies to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2012"

A lot of people have been talking, emailing, and warning each other about this part of the health care reform bill that passed seemingly, unnoticed. Today, I was "informed" via email that this was a "ploy to steal billions from unsuspecting homeowners". It is commonly explained as a sales tax but that is not correct, the best way to describe it would be a tax on profit. Basically, if you sell your home for a profit of more than $250,000.00 you will be required to pay a tax of 3.8%. The amount is $500,000.00 for couples selling a home. In reality, only a small percentage of Americans will be affected by this. The question then is, do you think it is right to be penalized for making a high profit.
Personally, I know that this tax will never apply to me however, I am able to look past myself and do believe that it is wrong. Based on the idea that no one should have to owe the government for making a large profit on their $400,000.00 home. However, this is not a perfect world and America is in a financial crisis. I do believe that compromises have to be made for sure and yes, certainly it is easy to say that those in the upper class should pay more than anyone else simply because, they can. Last time I checked though, they already do. So how far are we as a people willing to let that go? This was not something that was "snuck in", the America people have not had the "wool pulled over their eyes" by President Obama, this was open to the public and could have been discovered and researched by all. The problem is, no one thinks of that. No one cares until they are unhappy with something that effects them and then they decide to depict and study things. If even then, most of the time people never research things on their own, they simply hear about it from one of their friends and react how they are told based on the half-facts they were given. I'm sure we have all been guilty of that at one time or another, myself included.
I believe the majority of America needs to wake up and stop complaining about things after the fact. Actually research a candidate, bill, or issue for yourself before forming an opinion or making a decision, or God forbid, voting.
These are confusing times and we can't make decisions based on what we have been taught or what sounds good on the surface.


Learn about the Health Care Reform Bill:

http://www.healthreform.gov/index1.html

http://www.healthcare.gov/

Read the President's budget for the 2012 fiscal year:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/

"Top 10 Pros and Cons" of the Health Care Reform Bill:

http://healthcarereform.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=003725

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:

http://ppaca.com/


Quote taken from the "Boulder Real Estate Blog" (http://www.boulder-buzz.com/health-care-bill-and-real-estate-tax/). Sources include Eons.com, (http://www.eons.com/groups/topic/2208705-REal-Estate-Sales-Tax?page=1), CNNMoney.com, (http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/22/news/economy/medicare_tax_increase/index.htm), sorry FOX fans... and, Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=IP:US&sid=a70ouHuhCn5Y).

Thomas Jefferson

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe."
Thomas Jefferson

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."
Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
Thomas Jefferson

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

I think that John F. Kennedy said it best during a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time.
He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

Jane Austen Quotes

If you know me, you know that I love Jane Austen! Below are some of my favorite quotes from her!

"Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies."

"Good-humoured, unaffected girls, will not do for a man who has been used to sensible women. They are two distinct orders of being."

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."

"A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer."

"A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill."

"An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done."

"Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love."

"From politics, it was an easy step to silence."

"Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody."

"How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!"

"Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of."

"Husbands and wives generally understand when opposition will be vain."

"I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal."

"I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle."

"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."

"If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next."

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

"It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage."

"It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before."

"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery."

"Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything."

"My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company."

"My sore throats are always worse than anyone's."

"Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then."

"No man is offended by another man's admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment."

"Nobody minds having what is too good for them."

"Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."

"One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering."

"One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other."

"One man's style must not be the rule of another's."

"One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best."

"Respect for right conduct is felt by every body."

"Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken."

"Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure."

"Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable."

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."

"There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves."

"There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart."

"There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions."

"Those who do not complain are never pitied."

"To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love."

"To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive."

"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us."

"Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief."

"We do not look in our great cities for our best morality."

"What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken!”

"Where youth and diffidence are united, it requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl in the world."

"Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter."

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Convicting Quote

Just recently discovered the work of Tertullian - a second century Roman lawyer - and love how his words still apply today.
This quote was shared with me and I am passing it along!


"They praise what they know, they abuse what they are ignorant of, and they inspire their knowledge with their ignorance; though in fairness, you should rather judge of what is unknown from what is known, than what is known from what is unknown" (Tertullian, Apology, 21 - Speaking to the Romans at the time).

In modern English...he is saying that a wise person should make judgements on what he chooses to believe in on things he has already accepted as known truths to him.
In contrast, the foolish man who makes beliefs on things not even proven or known yet, but merely desire practically or blind faith so to speak.

For those of you who do not know, Tertullian gave his life to the cause of Christ.

Just a reminder that in this age esp., we need to be much more independent and proactive of our faith. Be ready to answer not only, "What do you believe?", but also, "Why?".

Love This!

"Dont wait for the perfect moment.

Take the moment, and make it perfect!"