Health Care Reporting Deadlines Extended for Employers

The February and March deadlines for employers to report health care information to their employees and to the IRS have been pushed back to March 31, and in some cases to June 30. The original deadline for reporting to employees was Feb. 1, with a new two-month window until March 31. The Feb. 29 and March 31 deadlines for reporting the same information to the IRS (by paper or electronically, respectively) are extended by three months. The extensions were announced Monday after pressure from employers who feared they couldn't meet the deadlines. Health insurance companies facing similar reporting requirements also got an extension. "It's a limited extension to make the system work as smoothly as possible," said Treasury senior adviser Mark Iwry. The vast majority of individual taxpayers will not be affected by this extension.  Like last tax filing season, most individuals will simply check a box on their tax return indicating they had health coverage for the entire year. These new forms provide individuals with a record of their health coverage, but they do not need to be attached to the tax return.

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