Regulators Delay ACA Employer Reporting, Payment Deadlines

According to a Treasury Department blog posting by Mark J. Mazur, the assistant secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the administration is announcing it will provide an additional year before the ACA mandatory employer and insurer reporting requirements begin. Mazur said this is designed to meet two goals: to allow the administration to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law and to provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees. “Within the next week, we will publish formal guidance describing this transition,” he wrote. 

According to the post, the administration recognizes this transition relief will make it impractical to determine which employers owe shared responsibility payments (under Section 4980H) for 2014. Accordingly, it is extending this transition relief to the employer shared responsibility payments. The shared responsibility payments will not apply until 2015.

“During this 2014 transition period, we strongly encourage employers to maintain or expand health coverage,” Mazur wrote. “Also, our actions today do not affect employees’ access to the premium tax credits available under the ACA (nor any other provision of the ACA).​”

The blog post is here.