The Bizarre Case Of Matt Drudge And His Obamacare 'Liberty Tax'

[DonViejo]

DYLAN SCOTT – MARCH 25, 2014, 9:04 AM EDT

The Treasury Department has now weighed in amid conservative media titan Matt Drudge's claims that he recently paid the Obamacare penalty he dubbed a "liberty tax."

In summary, Drudge apparently volunteered to fork over money to the IRS far earlier than he needed to. And he did it before the rules for doing so were final. TPM reported on Friday that was one of the possibilities from the facts Drudge laid out last week.

The department confirmed to TPM on Monday that instructions to pay the individual mandate penalty are still forthcoming. The IRS is still working on proposed regulations. On top of that, Treasury said that Americans who file quarterly estimated taxes -- as Drudge said he did -- are not required to include payments for the penalty.

That means Drudge likely gave the IRS an amount of money, which he has described as his penalty, but which he lacked the full information to pay.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/drudge-liberty-tax-update

[FSogol]

1. Why would anyone believe or care about anything Drudge said or wrote?

[DonViejo]

3. I haven't the foggiest idea why anyone would

believe or care what the dweeb says or writes, but, sadly and unfortunately, they do.

[6000eliot]

2. There's no mystery. He did it to make his stupid point.

[PoliticAverse]

4. The IRS instructions for filing your estimated quarterly tax payment are online...

You can see them here (.PDF) http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf

They specifically say:

Health care coverage.
When you file your 2014 tax return in 2015, you will need to either (1) indicate on your
return that you and your family had health care coverage throughout 2014, (2) claim an
exemption from the health care coverage requirement for some or all of 2014, or (3)
make a payment if you do not have coverage or an exemption(s) for all 12 months of 2014.
For examples on how this payment works, go to www.IRS.gov/aca and click under the
“Individuals & Families” section. You may want to consider this when figuring your “Other taxes” on
Line 12 of the 2014 Estimated Tax Worksheet. For general information on these requirements, go to
www.IRS.gov/aca

Contrary to the claim that "The IRS is still working on proposed regulations" they issued 'final regulations'
on the matter (.pdf): http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-08-30/pdf/2013-21157.pdf
(26 CFR Parts 1 and 602 [TD 9632] RIN 1545–BL36 Shared Responsibility Payment for Not Maintaining Minimum
Essential Coverage AGENCY Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury. ACTION Final regulations )

And actually have a webpage showing example calculations for the payment amount owed:
http://www.irs.gov/uac/ACA-Individual-Shared-Responsibility-Provision-Calculating-the-Payment

The IRS also has a specific webpage on the 'Individual Shared Responsibility Provision':

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Individual-Shared-Responsibility-Provision

.