Turbo Tax tells me "We don’t see a health insurance deduction in your return for 2009. Since you own a business, you can write off your health insurance premiums as long as you don’t have coverage available through an employer."

We have retiree health insurance through my FORMER employer. Does that count? Do I get a separate write-off for health insurance premiums since I have some self-employment income (which exceeds my premiums), or do I add it on Schedule A to other medical deductions, which must exceed 7.5% of AGI before I get any deduction?
The former employer pays around 45% of the total cost of health coverage (not taxable to me), and I pay the other 55%. I want to know if my out of pocket share is fully deductible, or only on Sch. A when combined with other medical expenses.

My husband has been with the same employer for 15 years. They started with over 50 employees and today they are down to just the owner and my husband. My husband has been managing the business and working and getting a set salary. The owner does not want to shut down the business but the overhead is getting high (the rent was raised 5 times higher at Jan 2009 which really hurt). The owner does not want to loose my husband and has offered to give him work and 1099 him, This would mean eliminating insurance, WC, and the high rent. He will lease my husband a company truck (for a month) and refer the work to my husband and pay him has an independent contractor. My husband’s employer gave him extra money to get a business licences. His job currently does not provide any sort of life/health/retirement benefits just a salary. I carry the health coverage and we have a retirement set up privately.

Besides the tax (increased SS and Medicare deductions) is there anything else that is bad about being an independent contractor compared to the previous salary position he had.

Local jobs are hard to come by and we have a disabled child and hate to move. The only other option is a job that is salaried which would mean my husband traveling 3-4 days a week out of town, which would be stressful.
The work has been steady, just the overhead is high. It is the oldest business of its kind in our city and they have alot of repeat customers Ovehead went from 4k a month to 13k and for having one employee 13k a month is alot to pay. They still have average 15k month in profit, but after 13k overhead does not leave enough with 4k it was fine.
One person in our city bought up most of the prime downtown and that is when the rent raised. It took 4 months to get a slightly smaller place but it was still higher rent. The owner also stated that if the situation changed, he would bring him in as a partner or re-instate the salary. I have no reason to not believe the owner. Several times there were smaller financial issues with the company and the owner always paid the employees and did not draw his own salary.

In his new healthcare proposal?

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/02/23/john-kartch-health-care-obama-taxes-family/

No New Taxes, Mr. Obama?
By John Kartch
– FOXNews.com

On Monday, the White House unveiled a health care plan with a net tax hike of at least 0 billion over the next ten years. What happened to the promise that no family making less than 0,000 will see their taxes increase?

One year ago, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress and restated his central campaign promise: “If your family earns less than 0,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.”

But on Monday, the White House unveiled a health care plan with a net tax hike of at least 0 billion over the next ten years. Not only does the plan increase taxes more than the House and Senate bills already roundly rejected by the public, several of the tax hikes in the plan violate Obama’s tax pledge. Let’s look at a few examples:

Individual mandate excise tax: The White House gets creative with its terminology here, preferring to call this tax a “payment” or an “assessment.” This provision would require all Americans to purchase health insurance – as a condition of lawful existence – or pay an excise tax.

This tax was also a pillar of the House and Senate health bills, both endorsed by the White House. In a famous exchange with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last September, Obama refused to admit that the tax was actually a tax, forcing Stephanopoulos to read aloud the dictionary definition of the word “tax” to the President.

Employer mandate tax: If an employer does not offer health coverage, and at least one employee qualifies for a health tax credit, the employer must pay an additional non-deductible tax for all full-time employees. This would apply to all employers with 50 or more employees. Small business owners pay their taxes on their owners’ 1040 forms, and there is no exemption for employers making less than 0,000.

Special needs kids tax: This provision caps pre-tax Flexible Spending Account (FSA) contributions at ,500 per year – currently, these accounts are unlimited. There are 30 million American families using FSAs for everything from deductibles to eyeglasses, but hardest hit would be families with special needs children. These families often rely on their FSA for special needs education, which can cost thousands of dollars per year.

“Haircut” for medical itemized deductions: Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction if the total cost of the expenses reduces the filer’s income by 7.5 percent. The new White House provision would raise that threshold to 10 percent.

Excise tax on indoor tanning services: Leaving no stone unturned in its hunt for revenue, the White House adopted the Senate’s “tanning bed tax”. Those using indoor tanning services will be hit with a 10 percent excise tax.

None of the provisions above include exemptions for families making less than 0,000.

Take a look at the plan yourself at the White House Web site, then click over to Obama’s Change.gov site. Under the “Taxes” category, it still reads as follows: “no family making less than 0,000 will see their taxes increase.”

Somebody has some explaining to do.

John Kartch is director of communications for Americans for Tax Reform and a Fox Forum contributor.

I’d like to know the total bill, what’s being spent by every level of government in the country, including the revenue lost to deductions taken by both businesses and individuals. Medicare, Medicade, Veterans, Military,any other government programs, health coverage for government employees at all levels, the tax breaks at all levels – the works. I expected to find this number fairly easily; how can we talk about the proper role of government in health care if we don’t know how much is already being paid for with tax dollars ? But I can’t find it.