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Chairman Smith, Representative Panetta Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Remove Paperwork Burden For Small Businesses and Workers

June 06, 2023

WASHINGTON, DC – Outdated Washington mandates force small businesses to take time away from serving their customers and employees. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) and Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) introduced the Paperwork Burden Reduction Act to relieve employers and workers from outdated, burdensome rules requiring employers to mail no longer needed tax paperwork to employees. Specifically, the legislation ends the requirement that employers continue to mail both forms 1095-B and 1095-C to employees to prove compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s no longer existent individual healthcare mandate. The bill allows employees instead to request 1095-B and 1095-C health insurance tax forms online, rather than be mailed a paper copy, while ensuring the form is still available to employees who need it.

 

Chairman Smith released the following statement after introduction of H.R 3797, the Paperwork Burden Reduction Act:

 

“All across America, small businesses have told us at Ways and Means field hearings how inflation, rising interest rates, and the labor shortage have made keeping the lights on a challenge. To add insult to injury, outdated mandates force small businesses to waste precious time and resources mailing confusing paperwork to their employees. We are reducing outdated bureaucratic burdens on small businesses and their employees who receive this useless paperwork every year. Thank you to Representative Panetta for introducing this legislation with me, and I hope that members of both parties can come together to cut red tape for working Americans.”

 

Background: The Paperwork Burden Reduction Act

H.R. 3797 eliminates needless paperwork for small businesses and workers.

  • Codifies the Treasury rule allowing for 1095-B forms available to be requested online.
  • Extends this flexibility to employers providing 1095-C forms, reducing unnecessary paperwork mandates while ensuring the form is still available to employees who may need it.

 

Burden on Small Businesses and Employees

  • Every year, employers spend significant time and resources mailing 1095-C forms to employees.
  • Only 1.4 percent of Americans decline their offer of employer-sponsored health insurance and will need to use this form.
  • More than 154 million Americans will receive this unnecessary form in the mail, confusing workers and frustrating taxpayers.

 

Read the bill here.