A week ago today, the IRS issued guidance (Notice 2013-45) on the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate, announced in a U.S. government blog earlier in the month. First and foremost, the guidance made the delay official (“A blog entry on a Treasury Department website is not exactly the type of reliance that one would ordinarily want,” as one expert put it), but more, it defines with its presence, legal sources tell EBN, all the negative space that the delay doesn’t change, and, in many cases, leaves unclear.
“It made it very clear that the transition relief for the extension only applies for purposes on these reporting forms and has no effect on anything else,” says Paul Hamburger with Proskauer. “At this point it is only the application of the fees for the mandate, and the reporting of the information on those forms.”
