Disproving Another Stupid Email Chain: The 3.8% Real Estate Tax /Health Care

 There's a new LIE going around on E-Mail. My mother-in-law got it and sent it to me to investigate.
Here's the LIE: The National Health Care Law that goes into effect in 2013 " Imposes a 3.8 percent tax on home sales and other real estate transactions. Middle-income people must pay the full tax even if they are "rich" for only one day — the day they sell their house and buy a new one.   "

WRONG!!! - The truth is, is that the TAX is not for home buyers OR on Real-Estate, it's a "3.8% transaction tax on profits over the capital gains threshold" .
   Whomever wrote that email didn't read and understand the law. IDIOTS.
  - Basically, it's a higher tax on RICH PEOPLE.
So, no one making under $250k will likely pay it, unless they make megabucks on investments and breach the Capital Gains Income threshold allowed by tax law. 
  If people would  take a couple of minutes to EDUCATE themselves instead of blindly following others, then they would learn the truth and not be fooled into voting for someone.  

HERE'S THE EXPLANATION:

This is a complicated section of a complicated piece of legislation, and the 3.8% Medicare tax has been frequently misreported as amounting to a 3.8% "sales tax" on all real estate transactions. This is incorrect: the Medicare tax is not a sales tax, nor does it apply to all real estate transactions; it is a tax on investment income (income which may or not derive from the sale of property) for persons who earn more than the amounts specified in the bill: As Sara Orrange, Government affairs director of the Spokane Association of Realtors noted in response to a repetition of the "sales tax" rumor in the Spokane Spokesman-Review:

In his recent guest column regarding the impact of the health care bill, Paul Guppy of the Washington Policy Center claimed that a 3.8 percent tax on all home sales was a part of the recently passed legislation. This is inaccurate and needs to be corrected. The truth about the bill is that if you sell your home for a profit above the capital gains threshold of $250,000 per individual or $500,000 per couple then you would be required to pay the additional 3.8 percent tax on any gain realized over this threshold.

FULL EXPLANATION: http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/realestate.asp

TRUTH: MIXTURE OF TRUE AND FALSE INFORMATION:

FALSE: Health care legislation imposes a 3.8% tax on all home sales.

TRUE: Health care legislation imposes a 3.8% transaction tax on profits over the capital gains threshold.