IRS's ACA Notice Raises Enforcement Questions, Practitioners Say

Following President Trump's executive order instructing federal agencies to ease compliance burden of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has formally stated that it will accept silent returns (which do not specify if an individual has health insurance coverage). However, the IRS has declined to clarify if taxpayers filing silent returns will be subject to enforcement action.

Attorney Nicole Elliot believes that the IRS is essentially saying, "The law is still the law, but we're going to continue to be lax in accepting silent returns." Ms. Elliott believes that the IRS will likely track the number of silent returns before deciding on potential actions.

"Under the executive order, my guess is they would not be doing a lot of compliance," said Ms. Elliott.

READ: IRS's ACA Notice Raises Enforcement Questions, Practitioners Say (subscription may be required)