On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law. With this act, the individual shared responsibility (or individual mandate) penalty under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is reduced to zero, effective in 2019. This means that beginning in 2019, individuals will no longer be penalized for failing to obtain acceptable health insurance coverage. However, a failure to obtain acceptable health coverage for 2018 may still result in a penalty for the 2018 tax year. Thus, individuals must still certify on their 2018 tax return whether they complied with the individual mandate for 2018. All other ACA provisions remain unchanged and employers and individuals must remain compliant. This “ACA Compliance Bulletin” provides additional details on this act and who it affects.
Contact your Cowden representative for more information on this or other compliance issues.