Another item in the “health care” bill:
Two tax provisions in the health-care bill voted on by the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this summer have gained significant attention. . . But there are other “revenue provisions” in the bill that also deserve a close look.
One would change the law to mandate that the Internal Revenue Service slap penalties on honest but errant taxpayers.
Under current law, taxpayers who lose an argument with the IRS can generally avoid penalties by showing they tried in good faith to comply with the tax law. In a broad range of circumstances, the health-care bill would change the law to impose strict liability penalties for income-tax underpayments, meaning that taxpayers will no longer have the luxury of making an honest mistake. The ability of even the IRS to waive penalties in sympathetic cases would be sharply curtailed.
Democrats think that that IRS should be harsher on honest mistakes. Good thinking, guys.
POSTSCRIPT: As an additional irony, the chairman of the committee that produced this travesty is a tax cheat.
Internet Scofflaw 