Citing stakeholder feedback, the Obama administration is giving employers an additional three months to comply with the reporting requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service on Monday extended the Feb. 29 paper and March 31 electronic deadlines for companies with more than 50 employees to provide information on what coverage they offer and the coverage they provide their staff.
The ACA reporting requirements apply to the 4% of employers that are required to provide insurance to full-time employees.
“As part of our efforts to implement the ACA in a careful and thoughtful way, the Treasury Department and the IRS are responding to feedback from private sector businesses and insurers and providing additional time for employer and insurer reporting under the ACA for the first year,” Mark Mazur, U.S. assistant secretary for tax policy, said in a news release.
The Treasury Department said the vast majority of individual taxpayers would not be affected by this extension. “Like last tax filing season, most individuals will simply check a box on their tax return indicating they had health coverage for the entire year,” it said.
As Bloomberg reports, the Obama administration “has repeatedly extended deadlines for implementation and insurance enrollment under the ACA, sometimes drawing criticism from opponents. Last year, Republicans sued the administration, saying the president exceeded his authority by delaying a requirement that most employers provide insurance to workers.”
in September, a federal judge in Washington declined to dismiss the lawsuit.
Earlier in December, the federal government extended the deadline for sign-ups on HealthCare.gov by two days because of high volume, according to Bloomberg.