TAX PRACTICE CORNER

The shared-responsibility payment by applicable individuals, better known as the "individual mandate" penalty for failure to have qualifying health insurance coverage, was at the heart of the litigation over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, P.L. 111-148 (PPACA), that culminated in the US Supreme Court's upholding the provision (National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 132 S. Ct. 2566 (US 6/28/12)). CPAs' clients may need or just be curious to know how much the payment might be, or have mistaken or oversimplified notions of it. Beyond that, tax preparers will need to familiarize themselves with information-reporting guidelines for minimum essential benefits and their implications for the individual mandate as those procedures, currently the subject of proposed regulations (REG-132455-11 and REG-136630-12), are finalized. They will no doubt also need to take the mandate into account in their client organizers and checklists for the 2014 tax year.