On Jan. 1, Cabela's, an outdoor equipment retailer based in Sidney, Neb., applied a 2.3 percent "medical excise tax" to some of its customers' purchases. It shouldn't have.
The Affordable Care Act includes a 2.3 percent excise tax on some medical devices to help finance the expansion of health coverage for the uninsured. But it's a tax manufacturers and importers of medical devices will have to pay. It's not a direct tax on consumers or a tax on manufacturers and importers of sporting goods and outdoor gear.
Cabela's spokesman Joe Arterburn said a "glitch" in the company's cash register system led to the errors, according to a report in the Omaha World-Herald. The faulty transactions occurred that one day, and all customers were offered a refund, he told the paper.
Unfortunately, that story came after some of those customers circulated images of their receipts online — such as the one in the email above — as evidence of a "hidden" tax in the health care law. Eight months later, we're getting questions about it from readers
