IRS Interpretations Further Complicate Obamacare Employer Mandate
Well, of course. It's the IRS.
As written, the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act — what the law calls "shared responsibility" — is complicated enough. Just to understand how the penalty applies practically requires a flow chart. But as the Internal Revenue Service has tried to interpret the mandate, the agency and the businesses and employees affected by the mandate are discovering that it is even more challenging than it reads. In some cases, the agency has resolved some of the confusion. But in others, the answers it has come up with have raised still more questions.
The Obama administration this month announced that it was pushing back enforcement of the mandate for a year, to give the I.R.S. time to write the rules on the law's reporting requirements for businesses. But some people hoping to influence the regulations would like to see the agency reconsider some of the other regulations for the mandate it had already proposed. (Others, as we reported earlier, would like to see Congress rewrite the terms of the mandate.)
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?