On Friday Matt Drudge took to Twitter to claim that he had just paid his Obamacare “LIBERTY TAX” penalty for not purchasing insurance.
Many, including myself, pointed out that Matt Drudge is a pants-on-fire liar. This roused the trolls from under their bridges who then leaped to the defense of their idol, but unfortunately for them the IRS itself has now weighed in and confirmed what many others have already said; there is no penalty due at this time.
The department confirmed to TPM on Monday that instructions to pay the individual mandate penalty are still forthcoming. The IRS is still working on proposed regulations. On top of that, Treasury said that Americans who file quarterly estimated taxes — as Drudge said he did — are not required to include payments for the penalty.
That means Drudge likely gave the IRS an amount of money, which he has described as his penalty, but which he lacked the full information to pay. [...]
Drudge was under no obligation to pay the penalty in that [quarterly] filing. The deadline to sign up for health coverage and avoid the penalty, March 31, hasn’t even passed — though Drudge has sworn to opt out of Obamacare for life.
This leaves us with two distinct but not necessarily conflicting possibilities: Drudge is a liar or he’s an idiot.
I don’t expect Drudge will actually forgo Obamacare for life. I expect he’ll sign up at the end of January in 2017.