IRS Forms List Medicare Surtax

Internal Revenue Service tax packages that are being mailed to millions of Americans contain instructions to pay the special surtax for Medicare’s catastrophic health care program even though Congress repealed the surtax retroactively, Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles) said Wednesday.

Roybal asked the IRS and the Social Security Administration to send out a special mailing advising taxpayers to ignore the line calling for calculation of the surtax, which would have been owed by Medicare beneficiaries.

The IRS forms were printed before Congress voted last month to repeal the law. President Bush signed the repeal legislation Wednesday.

“I am deeply concerned that the basic forms still instruct Medicare beneficiaries to pay the . . . surtax and will confuse many Medicare beneficiaries,” Roybal said in a letter to IRS Commissioner Fred T. Goldberg Jr.

“While I understand that you are planning public service announcements . . . I am concerned that this may be inadequate,” Roybal wrote to Goldberg. “I would suggest that you, along with the Social Security Administration, consider sending information directly to Medicare beneficiaries notifying them of the repeal.”