[Mr. Lee]

Unless I am reading this wrong, many of us may end up having to pay income tax on any health insurance provided by our former employers and that could put some of us in a difficult position if not prepared to do so. Does anyone read it differently than I read it? Will any of you be affected by this? I am pretty sure that I will be since my pension includes health insurance for a small monthly fee paid/deducted and I know it has to cost a lot more than they deduct.      Why else would they put it on a W2 unless they intend to tax it?  

Title IX Revenue 


http://www.opencongr.../111-h3590/text  TITLE IX--REVENUE PROVISIONS Subtitle A--Revenue Offset Provisions   Sec. 9001. Excise tax on high cost employer-sponsored health coverage. 
Sec. 9002. Inclusion of cost of employer-sponsored health coverage on W-2. 

IMO it doesn't matter if you're retired. Your gross income WILL most likely go up by the amount of insurance your employer paid for. So I am guessing that you will be required to pay taxes on a larger sum of money that you actually received. Take the tax form you just finished for 2009 
and see what $15,000.00 or $20,000.00 additional gross income does to your tax debt. 

That's what you may pay next year. For many it may put us into a much higher bracket. 
Also, go to Kiplinger's and read about the thirteen (13) tax changes for 2010 that could affect you. 
 
Why am I posting this? So any of you possibly affected can increase your savings, and so that you aren't surprised and put in a jam if it means what I am pretty sure it must mean? What do you think? 
 
 

[Fil/AmArt]

My tax bracket has already gone up and I ended up owing IRS $412 when I electronically finished filing my State and Federal Income tax Form because I started receiving my military pension a year and a half ago and suspended my government health insurance which cost me $500 a month and switched over to TRICARE which has no monthly premium payments until I turn 65 for Medicare part B, which only comes to about $80 a month which is no big deal to me!
I already saw the writing on the wall of more taxes to pay even before I filed my ITR. Oh well, it's a price that I'm willing to pay for putting more money into my piggy bank each year! But for others for sure, it will hurt their existing fixed income with no pay raise in sight because of the recession and the government's policy to freeze any pay hikes for those on Social Security and Medicare has already been cut by 21%!
If we were still living in the U.S., I would still be working today just to pay our monthly bills and making ends meet! At this point in our lives, we don't really know if we would return to the U.S. and live there again as a resident, it would just depend on our circumstances living here in the Philippines, because the qualify of health care here in the Philippines may be questionable until that time comes and no one can say for certain! It all just depends on one's predicament or situation when the time comes requiring medical health care here in a 3rd world country, which is still a scary thought! Oh well, we'll just see and find out eventually as we get older!