Senate healthcare bill steepens payroll tax for high-earners in 2013

The Senate's final healthcare bill steepens the payroll tax rates high-income people will face.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) released a manager's amendment to the healthcare bill finalizing its legislative language on Saturday morning that contained a provision increasing the payroll tax beyond levels called for in the initial Senate bill.

Where the first version of the bill called for a 0.5 percent additional tax on high-earners' FICA and SECA taxes, the manager's amendment increases the levy to a 0.9 percent rate.

The tax, which would begin in 2013, would apply to incomes in excess of $250,000 for a joint tax return and over $200,000 for any other tax filing.

Senate Democrats had considered a number of taxes to finance its healthcare bill, including taxes on high-value insurance plans. That breaks with the tax used in the House's healthcare bill, which institutes a straight income tax on people making over $1 million per year.

It's not clear how much more revenue the increase in rates is expected to rake in; Democrats have not yet released the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) score of the healthcare bill.