A quick review of the new taxes associated with the ACA (Now SCOTUS Care) is revealing. No matter that John Benedict Roberts has now saved Obamacare twice, the law is bad economics as Larry Kudlow points out in a recent editorial. There is now an extra 0.9 percent Medicare tax on salaries and on self-employment income. There is a 3.8 percent tax increase on capital gains and dividends. There is now a cap on healthcare flexible spending accounts and a higher threshold for itemized medical-expense deductions. And now there is a stiff penalty on employer reimbursements for employer reimbursements use for individual employee health-policy premiums.
The penalties for a business owner for moving from 49 employees to 50 are onerous. Similarly keeping an employee at 29 hours a week is avoids costs associated with going to 30 hours a week. The higher percentage of people reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics doing part time work is no surprise during this so called recovery. There is no disputing the low labor-force participation rate, but why should anyone be surprised. " Obamacare is a tax on full-time work. After-tax, people working part time yield more disposable income than working full time."