Compliance October 12, 2010

IRS Announces Relief on Health Cost Reporting Mandate

October 12, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Tuesday announced that the new requirement that employers report the cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan would be optional in 2011.
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According to the IRS announcement, the IRS and the Treasury Department decided that the relief is necessary to provide employers “the time they need to make changes to their payroll systems or procedures in preparation for compliance with the new reporting requirement.” Tax agency officials said they will be publishing guidance on the new requirement later this year.

“The IRS continues to stress that the amounts reportable are not taxable,” the tax agency said in the announcement. “[T]he new reporting requirement is intended to be informational only, and to provide employees with greater transparency into overall health care costs.”

Also Monday, the IRS issued a draft W-2 form for 2011. The draft Form W-2 includes the codes that employers may use to report their health-care coverage costs. The draft W-2 is at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/draft_w-2.pdf  

The IRS announcement about the reporting relief is at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-2010-69.pdf  

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