The Daily Caller: Individuals who don’t purchase health insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. After acknowledging the recently passed health-care bill limits the agency’s options for enforcing the individual mandate, Shulman told reporters that the most likely way to penalize individuals that don’t comply is by reducing or confiscating their tax refunds.
Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, Shulman downplayed the IRS’s role in enforcing the recent overhaul of the health insurance industry by claiming the agency would not aggressively target individuals who don’t purchase coverage. He noted that the health-care bill expressly forbids the agency from freezing bank accounts, seizing assets or pursuing criminal charges, but when pressed said the IRS would most likely use tax refund offsets to penalize those that don’t comply with the mandate. The IRS uses refund offsets to collect from individuals that owe the federal government a delinquent debt.
“These are not the kinds of things we send agents out about,” Shulman said. “These are things where you get a letter from us. Congress was very careful to make sure there was nothing too punitive in this bill.” [...]
We all knew something like this would have to be the case. What better way to collect the penalty than to hold on to refunds? When I read this article, I was immediately reminded of a debate Bill O’Reilly had with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). Wiener tried his best not to say that the IRS would be the enforcer of the individual mandate. I wonder if Weiner would like to have another go at that answer?
Right now the IRS is saying that they are not aggressively going after people who fail to buy insurance. However, as the cost of ObamaCare explodes (the bogus assumptions given to the CBO makes this a certainty) who is to say the IRS won’t be given a freer hand get the much needed dollars to keep this insane program going.
Let’s just hope these state lawsuits are successful, because a nasty can of worms will be open once the IRS gets involved.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Daily Caller