Perry Green invited me to respond to his latest letter about the so-called 'Home Sales Tax' in Obamacare.
In my first letter I suggested that he should do his homework by consulting www.realtor.org, and now I see that he still hasn't done it.
As I said before, the rules are rather complicated. I suggest that all readers look at http://www.realtor.org/small_business_health_coverage.nsf/pages/health_ref_faq_med_tax?opendocument. There are 17 questions with 17 answers. If, as he says, a home was appraised at $800,000 and if the owner was now to sell it for $450,000 he would be making no investment gain at all and so would not be subject to the tax. Here is the answer to question 11 on the above Web site: "The new Medicare tax would apply only to any gain realized that is more than the $250K/$500K existing primary home exclusion (known as the "taxable gain"), and only if the seller has AGI above the $200K/$250K AGI thresholds."
May I also suggest that we spend no more of the Journal's valuable letter space on this issue.
If Mr. Green wants to invite me for a coffee, my number is in the telephone directory.
Derek Boothby
Manchester
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