The Internal Revenue Service recently released draft versions of the forms that will be used to meet the shared responsibility reporting requirements under the Affordable Care Act. These draft forms have been released for comment and may not be used for filing until they are finalized. Instructions for the forms have not yet been issued, even in draft form. Those instructions may be even more informative than the forms themselves in providing additional guidance on the reporting requirements.
The issuance of these forms has been much anticipated since the Treasury Department issued tax regulations on the reporting requirements for both the individual mandate and the employer mandate in March. The reporting requirements are designed to notify the government about whether individuals and employers are meeting their obligations concerning health coverage under the ACA and to provide relevant information to individuals about their coverage and qualification for a subsidy through a health insurance exchange.
