Must Read: Mint 15: Today's best Linux desktop (Review)

Topic: Banking

Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

Summary: Had it gone live, it would have been a bookkeeping nightmare.

Denise Amrich

By for ZDNet Health |

We've all gotten 1099s. They're the reports that companies issue to freelancers and people who provide services outside the bounds of normal employment.

For more than a decade, I've managed the financials for the small Internet business my husband and I own. Filing 1099s is annoying, but nothing overwhelming in the overall tax-reporting scheme of things.

However, the new health care act changed all that. As a way to make sure more reporting on income was done -- ostensibly to make sure taxes were paid where they might have otherwise fallen through the cracks, a new 1099 reporting process was put into place.

Had it gone live, it would have been a bookkeeping nightmare.

The idea was that companies would have had to report to the IRS every transaction that was valued at more than $600 and, presumably, file separate 1099s for every vendor. As you might imagine, this could have been insane, especially for those companies in the tech sector.

Fortunately -- in a victory for bipartisan team-playing -- the Democratically controlled Senate has overturned this provision. The Republican-controlled House overturned it earlier in the month.

President Obama has indicated he'll sign this, so it looks like we won't be spending all our time filling out 1099s every time we buy an iPad or a file cabinet.

There are a lot of useful aspects to the new health care act and it's good to see that at least one element that made it problematic for most American businesses is being corrected. There's more to correct, and hopefully, over time, we'll have functional, comprehensive health care reform.

Topics: Banking, CXO, Government US, Health, Legal, IT Employment

About

Denise Amrich is a Registered Nurse, the health care advisor for the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute, and a mentor for the Virtual Campus at Florida's Brevard Community College.


Nothing in this article is meant to be a substitute for medical advice, and shouldn't be considered as such. If you are in need of medical help, please see your doctor.

Contact Disclosure

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

41 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • You write 'em, we'll read 'em

    This is bad news for computer salespeople in Washington and West Virginia who are assigned the IRS as an account. In addition to the headache of filing all those things, the IRS was going to have to process them and try to match up this guy's payments with that guy's income, across a matrix of billions of possible transaction paths, with all the usual typos in them at all the usual probability rates.<br><br>Obviously the lawyers in Congress never gave a thought to the real-world impact of any of it.
    Robert Hahn
    Reply Vote

    • &quot;We've all&quot; ... ??

      No 1099s for me! I live outside the USA unlike "everyone else in the entire universe". We are all individuals except me of course. I realise that it is difficult for many people, particularly non-native americans to realise that there are other countries in the world and perhaps elsewhere. Perhaps it is just arrogance or just ignorance?
      Regards from Tom :)
      Tom6
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

        @Tom6
        There are other countries in the world??
        Hasam1991
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

      @Robert Hahn "Obviously the lawyers in Congress never gave a thought to the real-world impact of any of it. "

      You haven't ever met a Congressman, have you? They never think of the real world impact. I don't know what color the sky is in their world, but wherever it is, their ideas always seem to work. Meanwhile here on planet Earth, they could mess up a wet-dream. And do so often.
      reziol
      Reply Vote

      • Agreed

        @reziol
        Which is one reason why we want them to stay out of our lives as much as possible.
        sissy sue
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

        @reziol - EXACTLY... lawyers writing bills on how business should be operated when they have ZERO business experience. No wonder we are so screwed up!!!
        beau27
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

    Major providers would have been submitting 1099's electronically to the government. Individuals as buyers would have been providing their socical security numbers to every business that the individual had over $600 a year in transactions. This would have been the grocery stores, gas stations, and other not so glamorous businesses. It's good the Congress realized the error of their ways.

    Perhaps if the bill have been available for the public to review in detail, we would not have see such a provision passed in the initial bill.
    David Wilson
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

    Nancy Pelosi didn't even read the bill...

    It's horrible, and it's a good start that at least one provision gets repealed.
    bb_apptix
    Reply Vote

    • You areCorrect

      @bb_apptix
      I don't think any of the congress critters ever read the bills they vote for. Most bills run hundreds of pages of mind numbing text. My guess is that the staff wades through the bill and provide a synopsis to their boss.

      It would improve congress if they limit themselves to 100 to 200 bills annually. This way they can wade through the bills and deliborate on the merits of the bill instead of doing a quick read and voting ignorantly.
      sboverie
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

      @bb_apptix <br>How do you know that the bill is horrible? Did YOU read it, or are you just relying on what you've heard?
      DLClark
      Reply Vote

  • There goes my business excuse for going crazy

    This field is required
    john.medcalf@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

    Now they should get rid of the rest of this unconstitutional monstrosity.
    s.winegar
    Reply Vote

  • Useful Aspects??!?!?!!!

    Maybe you should write an article on that. As far as I can tell, it's a way for the nation to go bankrupt while ruining health care.

    Repeal it.
    Hameiri
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

      @Hameiri
      Oh, just pack your things and go to a country without national healthcare system! Oh, that's right, these countries are all Third World ones... You know, they also do not pay taxes in many of these- you'll feel just fine.
      kirovs@...
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

        @kirovs@... Also? I pay taxes.
        Hameiri
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

        @kirovs@... Hey, of all those other advanced countries that have a national health care system, how come we are the most wealthy, powerful and defend many of them? That's right, many of them are living at home, driving Corvette's while their parents have a couple of Corollas.

        Also, as a presumably big believer in diversity, why are you so against having at least one advanced country that's different? Does everyone have to be the same? Let's see more of the experiment where the private health care country does the best.
        Hameiri
        Reply Vote

      • why?

        @kirovs@...

        Why do we need to be like them? I work for a living and have healthcare. Why should I subsidize someone who doesn't work?
        itguy08
        Reply Vote

      • Message has been deleted.

        i8thecat
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Breaking news: Senate repeals one of the health care act's more onerous provisions

        @itguy08@...
        It never occurred to you that something bad could happen through no fault of yours and you would be without work and insurance? That is why.
        @Hameiri
        Diversity? Nah, we are just 50 years behind.... Well, if we get kids working in a mine we'll be 100 years behind, here is a thought for you.
        kirovs@...
        Reply Vote

      • We already have

        as Obamacare proposes and intends to make it.<br><br>Look, get educated before making asinine statements. <br><br>Now, the people needing to move out are those that want national healthcare, so, you can go to countries that already have it, like Canada and Cuba and the UK and France. Let's see how long you like those systems compared to what we have already here in the states. <br><br>It's also quite apparent that, your way of thinking is simple-minded. Are you aware of the fact that, a great many of the people in the U.S. don't pay any taxes, and many of them, to the tune of around 35%, are completely dependent upon government handouts for just about everything, including food, clothing, shelter, transportation, healthcare, and many other things? And, about half of people don't pay any taxes. That's a road to ruins, and if we continue adding to the burden, which is supported by the private sector economy, then that economy will collapse and we will end up as a third world country that you mentioned. Anytime socialism, (and yes nationalized healthcare is a major part of socialism), becomes the controlling influence for any economy, then that influence will have nothing but negative effects, in which case, the economy won't be able to sustain government social spending, and the country will collapse. It's happened before and it will happen again. No country which has ever depended on so much spending for social programs, has ever succeeded for long. Socialism has always failed, and what's happening in the U.S., with the economy getting shrunk and government revenue getting drastically reduced, is proof of the failure of socialism. Socialism cannot be sustained. The country is already suffering with a deficit of around $1.70 trillion and a national debt getting close to $15 trillion, mostly because of the spending for social programs, and, with nationalized healthcare, the final death blow will have been dealt to the economy and to our way of life, and really, to the country. We will have been turned into a "third world" country.
        <br><br>
        With a dead economy, or an economy which cannot sustain big government spending, there wont be any kind of healthcare at all; not government healthcare, and not even privatized health care.

        <br><br>The 2010 elections was about the majority of the people realizing that, what the country was doing was going to lead us to ruins. Yet, the house of representatives, and the senate, and the president, decided that, the people didn't really know what's good for them, and so, "our" government went ahead and passed Obamacare, completely disregarding that the majority of the American people opposed the program. The majority of the American people still oppose Obamacare, and wish for it to get repealed. It seems that you are out of step with the American people, and so, it would seem to me that it's you that needs to be moving to a different country. <br><br>Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
        adornoe
        Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close