Did You Hear About the 3.8% Real Estate Sales Tax?

Urban Myths and Election Chatter

Got this one in my email box the other day from a friend:

Under the new health care bill – did you know that all real estate transactions are now subject to a 3.8% Sales Tax ? The bulk of these new taxes don’t kick in until 2013 (presumably after Obama’s re-election). You can thank Nancy, Harry and Barack and your local Democrat Congressman for this one.

—The Spokesman-Review (3/28/2010)

There may be plenty of reasons to vote Republican this November — but a 3.8% sales tax on real estate sales, buried in the new health care legislation, isn’t one of them.

That’s because it isn’t true.

Apparently, fear-mongerers on a certain side of the political spectrum are whipping up anger and paranoia and a BIG dollop of outright lies to engage prospective voters.

So, where’d the myth about a 3.8% sales tax come from?

The best I can determine, someone, somewhere, floated the idea at some point during the health care debate — but it did NOT become law.

Hmm . . . makes you wonder what other “disinformation” is out there . . .