The Senate on April 5 voted to repeal the unpopular 1099 tax reporting requirement from the Affordable Care Act.
The repeal bill (H.R. 4), which was passed by the House in March, will now go to President Obama for his signature. The president called on Congress to address this provision in his State of the Union speech and received a standing ovation from lawmakers.
The provision was passed as part of the Affordable Care Act and requires businesses, including physician practices, to file a 1099 tax form with the Internal Revenue Service for all payments to vendors of more than $600 per year. The requirement was set to take effect in 2012. The American Medical Association has been lobbying against the 1099 requirement, noting that compliance would be expensive and that it would negatively impact the operation of physician practices.
Members of Congress had attempted to strip the 1099 requirement from the health reform law earlier but could not reach agreement on how to offset potential revenue from the provision.
H.R. 4 pays for the change by allowing the federal government to recoup more money from taxpayers in cases where individuals received an overpayment in their health care tax credit. The increased amounts that the government can collect are capped on a sliding income scale.