IRS weighs in on healthcare mandate rules

Still have questions about Obamacare and what it all means? Here’s some help.

Most of the Obamacare regulations aren’t finalized yet. But the IRS announced that large employers can rely on its proposed rules for guidance until those regulations are finalized.

There’s also a helpful FAQ on its website for Obamacare compliance.

Here are two important parts of the proposed rules:

• If employers decide not to offer health insurance under the ACA, they may be subject to an Employer Shared Responsibility payment if at least one of their full-time employees receives a premium tax credit for purchasing individual coverage through an Insurance Exchange, and
• Businesses that don’t provide coverage may have to pay a penalty of an annual $2,000 per employee if over 30 employees are subsidized by the tax credits.

The Employer Shared Responsibility provisions go into effect on next year in 2014, but employers still need to use info about workers employed in 2013 to determine whether they have enough employees to be subject to the new provisions in 2014.

As a reminder, employers must have at least 50 full-time workers or 100 part-time workers to be subject to these provisions.