Overview
Affordable Care Act Changes Under Consideration: Three pieces of legislation that would modify aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are currently under consideration in Congress. Yesterday, the House unanimously passed H.R. 22, which would exempt veteran employees with health coverage under TRICARE or the Veterans Administration from being taken into account for purposes of determining the employers to which the employer mandate applies under ACA. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) also proposed altering the employer mandate, introducing S. 30, which would raise the threshold that defines full-time employment for purposes of the employer mandate from 30 hours per week under current law to 40 hours per week. Finally, Representative Erik Paulsen (R-MN) introduced H.R. 160, which would repeal ACA’s excise tax on medical devices, as well as refund such taxes that companies have already paid.
Miscellaneous Guidance Released:
Revised Publication 5190 provides an updated draft of the user guide for the International Data Exchange Services (IDES) that may be used by enrolled foreign intermediaries to transmit FATCA data.
Publication 5188 provides a user guide for the Metadata XML Schema v1.0, which explains how to prepare and validate the IDES metadata file used in FATCA reporting.
Revised Publication 571 updates guidance concerning tax-sheltered annuity plans (403(b) plans).