4/14/2011

President Obama signs 1099 repeal

With President Obama’s signature, the Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection & Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act (H.R. 4) became law on April 14, officially repealing the burdensome 1099 paperwork mandate originally included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“This is a great victory for rental businesses across the nation who would have spent millions of dollars complying with this ill-advised provision,” says John McClelland, ARA vice president of government affairs.

Early in the process, McClelland wrote a letter to Camp on behalf of ARA members, which was then entered into the official record in support of the repeal. McClelland also worked with The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and represented ARA on the steering committee of the small business Coalition for Affordable Health Care, both strong forces in the successful repeal.

McClelland added that ARA appreciates the efforts of all involved with the passage of the bill, especially the author of the bill Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA), and Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE) who brought the repeal to the Senate floor for a vote.

The 1099 mandate, which was included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, would have required small businesses to use Form 1099 to report every business transaction in excess of $600. While legislators agreed that it would place an unreasonable burden on small businesses, they had difficulty agreeing on funding the repeal. As passed, H.R. 4 allows for funding through the recovery of overpayments for taxpayer-funded government health insurance subsidies.

In a statement released after signing H.R. 4, the President discussed the significance of this development for small business. “Today, I was pleased to take another step to relieve unnecessary burdens on small businesses by signing H.R. 4 into law. Small business owners are the engine of our economy and because Democrats and Republicans worked together, we can ensure they spend their time and resources creating jobs and growing their business, not filling out more paperwork. I look forward to continuing to work with Congress to improve the tax credit policy in this legislation and I am eager to work with anyone with ideas about how we can make health care better or more affordable,” he said.