The WA Cares tax kicked in at the beginning of July, so we thought we’d take a moment to review some of the recent opinions published about it over the past week or two.
Here are Five Fast Facts on the WA Cares tax:
- 📝 Recapping The Details - To refresh your memory, a new tax started coming out of workers’ paychecks in July. The tax amount is $58 for each $10,000 you earn. The money goes into a fund for WA residents who need help with long-term care starting ten years from now. If eligible, you can get up to $36,500 (lifetime benefit) for help with things like nursing homes, in-home care, meal deliveries, and more. Half a million residents said “no thanks” and opted out.
- 👍 Points In Favor - Fans of the tax point out that this helps people who need it. The median American savings amount is only $5k and almost a third of Americans don’t have any at all. As people age, they need help, and this provides it. They also say improvements will be made to the tax as time goes on. Um, if improvements are needed immediately, why weren’t they part of the original law?
- 👎 Points Against - Opponents say that taxes are already too high and this one doesn’t provide enough bang for the buck. The benefits you paid for over time go away if you move out of the state, and even if you stay you’re not guaranteed to be eligible. If you are, the reality is that $36k doesn’t go very far when it comes to long term care. The solution is easy: just don’t get old (or unhealthy!!!).
- 🤏 Points For Moderation, Part 1 - Some are trying to find a middle ground. Some supporters suggest that the benefits aren’t intended to fully fund long term care for years, and that most people need much less support that would be covered by this tax. That’s reasonable…but was that how it was sold to the public?
- ✅ ❎ Points For Moderation, Part 2 - Some opponents say that the main problem is that it was mandated for all Washingtonians rather than optional. Yeah, there was an opt-out, but most didn’t know about it, and the process was full of problems. Yay bureaucracy!
🔥Bottom line: We’re not big fans of things that reduce Paychecks. It’s still awfully early to tell how this will play out over the long term, but it seems that there are more problems than benefits. Since this tax is already law, we hope that’s not the case, but we’ll keep an eye on this over time.
What do you think about this tax?
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