On Wednesday, December 11, 2024, Congress passed two new bills to simplify the employer mandate and ACA reporting requirements, and on December 23, 2024, President Biden signed them into law. Here’s what you need to know about these bills.

The Paperwork Reduction Act

This act modifies provisions under the ACA that require employers and health insurers to prepare and furnish 1095-C/1095-B forms to employees.

1. Employers will no longer need to mail forms to employees but must provide them upon request by January 31 or within 30 days of request.
2. Employers must provide timely notice to individuals of their right to request these forms. This notice must be clear and conspicuous, in a location on the provider’s website that is reasonably accessible to all responsible individuals, stating that responsible individuals may receive a copy of their statement upon request.
   1. The notice must include an email address, a physical address to which a request for a statement may be sent, and a telephone number that responsible individuals may use to contact the provider with any question.
   2. The notice is posted on a provider’s website written in plain, non-technical terms and with letters of a font size large enough, including any visual clues or graphical figures, to call to a viewer’s attention that the information pertains to tax statements reporting that individuals had health coverage.
      For example, a provider’s website provides a clear and conspicuous notice if it (1) includes a statement on the main page—or a link on the main page, reading “Tax Information” to a secondary page that includes a statement—in capital letters, “IMPORTANT HEALTH COVERAGE TAX DOCUMENTS.”

The Employer Reporting Improvement Act

1. This act’s intention was to allow forms to be furnished electronically. However, it still mentions affirmative consent, so nothing seems to have changed.
2. Allows birthdate to substitute for SSN or TIN when not available. This, too, brings no change as the IRS rules have allowed this as well.
3. Applicable Large Employers will have 90 days (currently 30 days) to respond to Employer Shared Responsibility Penalty notices (Letter 226J). This is new and welcome!
4. Establishes a 6-year statute of limitations of limiting collection assessments, which states:
   1. Assessable payment of employer-shared responsibility. In the case of any assessable payment under section 4980H, the period for assessment shall expire at the end of the six year period beginning “on the due date for filing the return under section 6056 (or, if later, the date such return was filed) for the calendar year with respect to which such payment is determined.”
   2. The amendment made by this section shall apply with respect to returns that are due after December 31, 2024. Therefore, it appears that the Statute of Limitations will first apply to tax year 2024, and we will see this in 2030.

Please continue to read our blog posts and follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest developments.