New Medicare Tax Imposed on Real Estate Sales of "High-Income Earners" | Health Care Reform

New Medicare Tax Imposed on Real Estate Sales of “High-Income Earners” | Health Care Reform

filed under: Ask the Broker, Real Estate Investment Strategies posted on September 29th, 2010

New Medicare Tax Imposed on Real Estate Sales of “High-Income Earners”. Many of you have heard about the new Medicare Tax on investment income, including income from real estate. However, based upon several calls the Wisconsin Realtors Association has recieved, confusion still exists about when the new tax goes into effect, who it applies to, and what types of real estate will be impacted.

Here are the facts:

Beginning in 2013, a new 3.8% tax will be imposed on investment income of “high-income earners” — single households with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) over $200,000 and married households above $250,000. The tax applies to the smaller of the household’s net investment income or the excess of AGI over the thresholds. Capital gains are treated as investment income.

If a household’s AGI exceeds the thresholds, the household will be required to pay the 3.8% tax on the following types of real estate:

	the gain from the sale of a primary residence, if the gain on the home exceeds $250,000 for single households or $500,000 for married households (Note – For primary residences, the tax applies only to the gain over these amounts.)
	the gain from the sale of second homes
	the gain from the sale of investment and commercial real estate
	net rental income from investment properties

Medicare vs. Medicaid:

Medicare, not to be confused with medicaid, is the social health insurance program administered by the Federal Government under the Social Security Act of 1965. Medicaid is the U.S. health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is jointly funded by the local state and Federal governments and is managed by the states.

For more information on the new Medicare Tax, please visit:

http://www.realtor.org/small_business_health_coverage.nsf/pages/health_ref_faq_med_tax?opendocument

Disclaimer and Source: The above information was provided by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA). This post is intented as an informative article. I am not a CPA nor a financial advisor. Therefore, I would recommend you to contact your personal CPA or financial advisor for more information and personal advise and counsel.

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posted by Ark Rhowmine

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Ask the Broker, Real Estate Investment Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.