A Health Tax on Expats?

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2009/10/a-health-tax-on-expats

American citizens who leave the U.S. permanently to live abroad are still required to file U.S. federal income tax returns each year, and report their foreign bank accounts - on pain of penalties such as a fine. In everything I've read about the various health reform bills and proposals being crafted, I have yet to see any mention of a possible effect on the hundreds of thousands of expatriate Americans around the world.

• Will US citizens residing abroad get trapped in an individual insurance mandate, and subject to fines? Or exempted completely?
• If there is a blanket exemption on the basis of living abroad, what type of documentation would be required to prove residence abroad? How would it be collected and verified? (Sounds like a nice niche business for notaries, translators and maybe forgers...)
• If there is no blanket exemption, will expats be required to show proof of insurance in their country of residence?

Perhaps the new jobs generated by the bureaucracy to police this could be financed by the next stimulus package.

by Grayson Levy  |  Oct 8, 2009 at 3:31 pm Related Topics:  Health Care receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list