Under Obamacare — even the president has learned to like that name for the health-reform law — almost everybody is supposed to have health insurance. What if you don't? Starting next year, there will be a penalty tax that will start being collected on tax returns for 2014 that will be filed in April 2015.

How much? For starters, just one percent of income or $95, whichever is more, and for the first year, the fee is capped at $285. But the penalty is expected to rise sharply in future years. Children are subject to the same tax, and the adults who claim them as deductions will owe it.

There are some exemptions: those with household income below the threshold for filing a tax return; those who go without coverage for less than three consecutive months in a year; and those for whom insurance would be unaffordable, costing more than 8 percent of household income.

For nearly 30 years, Mike Nickerson has owned and managed a small, full-service accounting practice in the Midcoast. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from University of Southern Main and a master's degree in financial planning from Bentley University.

He is a past board member and president of the Maine Society of Certified Public Accountants and currently serves on the Maine Board of Accountancy.

An aged rock musician, Nickerson now finds musical enjoyment playing upright and electric bass in a variety of bands spanning folk to jazz music genres. He and his wife have three grown children, and they enjoy their free time hiking, kayaking, golfing, bicycling and motorcycling.