Tax increases on investments embedded in President Barack Obama's healthcare law will kick in early 2013.
Now that the Supreme Court has cleared up doubts as to whether the law violates the Constitution — it doesn't on the grounds that it's a legal tax — tax rates on capital gains and dividends will jump from their current 15 percent level to 18.8 percent to help fund overhaul of the healthcare sector, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The law affects joint filers with adjusted gross income of more than $250,000 and $200,000 for single filers.
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Tax increases take effect on Jan. 1, 2013, according to the law, which Congress passed in 2010.
Some experts say entrepreneurs seeking to sell their businesses will rush to do so this year.
"Business sellers haven't been paying attention to this tax, but now they are," says Beatrice Mitchell of Sperry Mitchell in New York, a broker of middle-market businesses, the Wall Street Journal adds.
Democrats charge the tax hike evens the playing field.
"These people have access to healthcare, their companies can deduct the cost of their insurance plans, and they can exclude the costs from their taxable income,” says former chairman of the House Budget Committee, Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., according to the Christian Science Monitor.
"They have an advantage, and we felt the taxes would level the benefit advantage out."
Republicans say the law raises taxes and threatens the healthcare sector.
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"The problem for the American people is this is a massive tax increase at a time they can least afford it and Obamacare will jeopardize the quality and accessibility of health care," says Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, the Monitor adds.
The Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote upheld the president's healthcare reform act, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Thursday, with Chief Justice John Roberts supporting the constitutionality of the measure.
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