The IRS issued final regulations about how it will release certain tax return information to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as required by 2010’s health care legislation (T.D. 9628). The final regulations, which will be effective Wednesday, describe certain items the IRS will disclose in addition to those required by Sec. 6103(l)(21). The final rules adopt the proposed rules issued last year with two changes (REG-119632-11).
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, P.L. 111-148, required HHS to establish a program under which affordable insurance exchanges can determine whether individuals are eligible to enroll in qualified health plans under the exchange and are eligible for other benefits under the health care acts. Sec. 6103(l)(21) permits the IRS to disclose to HHS certain tax return information to help the exchanges determine taxpayer eligibility where income verification is required.
Sec. 6103(l)(21) identifies specific items of return information that will be disclosed and permits disclosure of other items prescribed in regulations. The statutory items include the taxpayer’s identity and filing status, the number of personal exemptions claimed, and the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income (MAGI).
Under the final regulations, items the IRS will disclose include
adjusted gross income, any amount excluded under Sec. 911, tax-exempt
interest, the fact that the taxpayer did not have a filing requirement
for the year, and the fact that the taxpayer did not file a return for
the year reconciling advance payments of the Sec. 36B premium tax
credit with the amount of the premium tax credit available for the
year.
In response to information the IRS received from HHS
that the Social Security Administration (SSA) would be providing the
total amount of Social Security benefits a taxpayer receives, the IRS
added to the list of items required to be disclosed the amount of the
taxpayer’s Social Security benefits that are included in income under
Sec. 86. This information will allow exchanges to determine a
taxpayer’s MAGI.
The second change from the proposed regulations was to eliminate a reference to adoption taxpayer identification numbers (ATINs) from the list of identification numbers being verified by the SSA because the SSA has no record of ATINs and will not verify those numbers.
—
Sally P. Schreiber (
sschreiber@aicpa.org
) is a JofA senior editor.
