The House health care bill released Thursday raises most revenue by taxing individuals making $500,000 or more, but also tightens rules for corporate accounting and takes aim at foreign companies working in tax havens.
The $894 billion bill, a product of months of negotiations between three congressional committees, must now be reconciled with a Senate version, where many of the provisions could change.
Americans earning more than $500,000, or couples taking in more than $1 million annually, would face a 5.4 percent tax, to raise $460.5 billion. There is no such tax in the Senate versions and the idea is expected to be a much tougher sell in the upper chamber.
"We do not believe a tax on individuals making over $500,000 or families making over $1 million will fly in the Senate," said Ipsita Smolinski, an analyst for investors at consulting firm Capitol Street.
The provision would impact 0.3 percent of all U.S. households, according to a joint House-Senate tax panel. Another provision would collect $26.1 billion over 10 years by putting off a liberalized way for multinational companies to allocate interest expense, until 2020.
The bill also limits tax benefits for foreign multinational companies incorporated in tax havens which may be using offshore structures to evade U.S. taxes.
Large U.S. employers not providing health insurance would face a tax equivalent to 8 percent of wages. No revenue estimate was provided for this provision.
Medical device makers would be slapped with a 2.5 percent tax, imposed on the sale of any medical device except those sold to the general public, raising $20 billion. Devices sold for further use in manufacturing are also exempted.
The bill would also codify into law the doctrine of economic substance -- that tax benefits are not allowed for a transaction without an economic or business purpose.
It imposes fines of between 20 percent to 40 percent on those who understate income in a transaction with no economic substance, depending on whether the transaction was reported.
If a company ends up being guilty of violating the economic substance rule, it is subject to a strict liability standard under the bill, according to Clint Stretch, managing principal for tax policy at Deloitte in Washington, who was previously legislative counsel for the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
"This will lead to a shift of power between taxpayers and IRS agents," Stretch added. "The IRS can always argue that a transaction lacks economic substance."
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