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Business groups ask IRS to delay health law's employer mandate
The IRS should not enforce new penalties under President Obama's healthcare law until employers have some time to get used to the new rules, business groups said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the IRS to give businesses a one-year grace period before enforcing penalties attached to the law's employer mandate — the provision requiring large employers to offer their workers healthcare coverage.
In comments submitted to the IRS and the Treasury Department late Monday, the Chamber requested "a one-year non-enforcement period to allow employers to work to comply with the requirement without fear of tremendous and potentially business eviscerating penalties."
Businesses will be penalized for each employee who gets a subsidy from the federal government to buy coverage on his or her own.
Complying with the mandate is complicated, particularly because of the way the law calculates full-time equivalent employees, the Chamber said, adding that businesses need a year to figure out the new system before facing fines.
"Particularly, as our country and economy continue to recover from a significant recession and high unemployment and underemployment rates, we urge Treasury and IRS to afford employers an appropriate non-enforcement period before penalties are imposed," the Chamber said in its comments.
The National Retail Federation echoed the Chamber's concerns.
"We continue to urge you to strongly emphasize compliance assistance rather than penalty application in the early years of ACA applicability," the group said in its comments to the IRS.
