Penalties for Uninsured Skyrocketing in 2015

This new year millions of taxpayers will face steep fines if they were uninsured in 2014.

The coming year is the first year all taxpayers must report to the IRS whether they had health insurance for the previous year as required under Obamacare.

Those who were uninsured will face fines, unless they qualify for one of about 30 exemptions, which are mostly related to financial hardships. 

What many people don't realize is that the penalties go up significantly in 2015. Only 3 percent of uninsured people know what the fine for 2015 will be, according to a recent poll by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

The fines are jumping from $95 in 2014, to $325 in 2015. By 2016 the average fine will be about $1,100 based on government figures.

People can get a sense of the potential hit by going online and using the Tax Policy Center's Affordable Care Act penalty calculator.

Meanhile, the American Center for Law and Justice is urging the Supreme Court to reject IRS regulations authorizing illegal Obamacare tax subsidies.

A key part of the Affordable Care Act says tax subsidies are available only to Americans who enrolled "through an exchange established by the state."

Now, the Obama administration is making those subsidies available to people in states without their own exchanges, saying the intent of the law was to offer subsidies and expand coverage to Americans in every state.

The ACLJ argues the move is illegal, saying the IRS has been wrongly interpreting the law to mean Americans in every state should be eligible for the cash.

ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow said the regulations are "another example of the executive overreach of the president" and that "the law must be applied as written."