Affluent taxpayers paid $23 billion in additional taxes in 2014 due to a pair of tax increases to help fund the Affordable Care Act, according to data recently released by the Internal Revenue Service.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, the tax increases were approved by Congress in 2010. They took effect for the 2013 tax year and were first paid during the 2014 filing season. The total revenue from the two increases was about $3 billion higher than forecast, says Roberton Williams, an income-tax specialist with the Tax Policy Center in Washington.
One of the taxes is a 3.8% surtax levied on the net investment income of high earners. It applies to most couples with adjusted gross income of more than $250,000 and singles with more than $200,000.
Taxpayers with earnings above the same thresholds were also hit with an extra 0.9% of Medicare tax, on top of the basic 2.9% that is split between employers and  employees.
In 2014, 3.1 million taxpayers paid net investment income taxes totaling $16.5 billion, according to the IRS. The average payment was $5,300. Mr. Williams calculates that the total income subject to the tax was about $435 billion.
Meanwhile, 2.8 million taxpayers paid $6.5 billion in additional Medicare tax, according to the IRS. The average payment was $2,300. That was levied on $725 billion of earnings, Mr. Williams says.
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