The 3.8% Tax on Unearned Income

Starting in 2013, some will pay the 3.8% additional tax on unearned income (dididends, interest, rental income, royalties and capital gains).

It is supposed to only impact, quote, High Income individuals,  (Single/Married), ($200,000/$250,000 modified adjusted gross income.  If you are close to those figures and have unearned income that you cannot exclude, such as the proceeds of sale of a stock or property (capital gain over what you can exclude), it is added to your income for purposes of this law. 

A big problem is that very few know about the law (HR 4872), even though it was passed in conjunction with the Obama Health Care Bill in 2009.  Suspicious to me, is that it comes into play only after the elections this year.

See the links beow for a short video on the tax,

http://www.youtube.com/user/3fredeckert3?ob=0&feature=results_main#p/u/3/6JCjTLl5Qto

 a good Q&A

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

and a nice handout of the potential impact

http://www.ksefocus.com/billdatabase/clientfiles/172/8/1437.pdf