Matt Drudge Is (Probably) Lying About Paying A Huge Obamacare ‘Liberty Tax’

Matt Drudge carries a laptop computer as he walks up the stairs at his Hollywood-area apartment in Los Angeles June 18, 1997. The Drudge Report, the daily barrage of breaking news, gossip and politics he e-mails to s... Matt Drudge carries a laptop computer as he walks up the stairs at his Hollywood-area apartment in Los Angeles June 18, 1997. The Drudge Report, the daily barrage of breaking news, gossip and politics he e-mails to some 65,000 subscribers, is hotter than hot. (AP Photo/Michael Caulfield) MORE LESS
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It seems conservative monolith Matt Drudge is taking some pride in paying the penalty for not purchasing insurance under Obamacare. He’s even got a name for it.

There’s just one problem: Americans don’t pay a penalty for not having health insurance until they file their 2014 taxes — in 2015. So either Drudge is lying or he paid a huge penalty a year earlier than he needed to.

As this helpful IRS explainer details, Americans who go without insurance in 2014 should “make an individual shared responsibility payment with your 2014 tax return filed in 2015.”

“You will make the payment when you file your 2014 federal income tax return in 2015,” it says. That’s in part because the penalty is based on one’s annual income.

The Obama administration doesn’t currently have a mechanism for accepting individual mandate payments, which are separate from income taxes, and the exact penalties have not yet been determined, as the Huffington Post reported.

UPDATE: 5:00 p.m. ET

TPM had reached out to Drudge before publication, but Drudge responded on Twitter.

If Drudge was referring to the employer mandate, it only applies to companies with more than 50 employees. They must cover a certain percentage of their employees or pay a penalty.

But companies with less than 100 employees are exempt from any penalty until 2016. Drudge has never revealed the full extent of his staff, but the Huffington Post characterized it as “small” in a 2012 article about two new hires.

Drudge has not responded to TPM’s follow-up attempts for comment.

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