This year is the first employers and payers are required under the Affordable Care Act to report health coverage information to employees and the IRS. The IRS is ready to accept this information in January and has encouraged employers and payers to begin reporting as soon as possible, according to a news release.
However, in response to feedback from the private sector, the Treasury Department and the IRS have decided to extend the Feb. 1 deadline by two months for employers and payers to give individuals forms to report health coverage offerings to the IRS. Subsequent deadlines on Feb. 29 and March 31 — for individuals to report this information to the IRS by paper and electronically, respectively — will be extended three months.
According to a news release, this extension should not affect most individual taxpayers, who will continue to simply check a box on their tax return if they had health coverage for the entire year. The extension is in place for employers and payers to get systems ready to report information on the health coverage they provide.
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