Tracy’s Tax Tips: Healthcare Reform and Your Taxes

Does the healthcare reform affect your taxes this year? In a small way… yes.

Tracy Byrnes from the FOX Business Network explains in “Tracy’s Tax Tips”:

One more healthcare act tax provision will show up on your 2012 Form W-2 that your employer is required to send to you by the end of January.

I’m Tracy Byrnes with the Fox Business Network here with Tracy’s Tax Tips.

Okay so, in Box 12, you’ll see how much your workplace-provided medical coverage is worth. Now don’t worry. You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to include the amount on your tax return. But I wanted you to be aware of this extra number that’s going to show up on your W-2. It will have the explanatory code DD next to it and it’s for informational purposes only.

It’s basically for Uncle Sam. Now, the IRS is going to this data to help it enforce two new things in the healthcare law: The eventual coverage mandate, which goes into effect in 2013, and the so-called ‘Cadillac tax’ on more expensive workplace insurance plans, which isn’t effective until 2018.