Will Everyone Have to Pay a 3.8% Tax When Selling Their House?

I’ve just received yet another chain email regarding the rumor about The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The claim states that everyone will have to pay a 3.8% tax when you sell your house. This is part of the attempt to scare and it has succeeded with some people. No matter which side of the political spectrum one is on it always pays to check the facts for yourself.

What the law says is according to Politifact.com and FactCheck.org is the health-care plan does include new taxes. One of them is a 3.8-percent tax on home sales by the wealthy and won’t affect the vast majority of sellers or buyers.

Here's why.

The tax does not apply to individuals with an adjusted gross income of under $200,000 in the year the sale takes place. Nor does it apply to couples with an AGI below $250,000. The amount a person (or a couple) makes on the sale is not included in the income calculation.

That rule alone eliminates the tax on more than 97 percent of tax returns.

Even if the seller exceeds the income limit, the tax only applies to the profit from the home sale, not the sales price itself. That's why it's not a sales tax, as it's sometimes characterized.

There is more to this story that can be read at

 http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2012/jul/15/vincent-buddy-cianci/talk-show-host-buddy-cianci-says-obamas-health-car/

FactCheck.org has researched it and here is their conclusion under the heading “A 3.8 Percent “Sales Tax” on Your Home?”  Check out the details at

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/04/a-38-percent-sales-tax-on-your-home/

There is no Santa Claus, no Man-in-the-Moon, and certainly no provision in The Affordable Care Act which says everyone who sells a home has to pay a 3.8% tax. Period.