The Obama administration announced on July 2 that it will provide an additional year before employers are required to comply with the employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Thus, the ACA penalties imposed on employers for failure to provide minimum essential coverage or affordable and/or minimum-value coverage will not apply for 2014, but instead will be delayed until 2015. The announced delay will also apply to the ACA’s insurer reporting requirements.

“We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

However, the one-year delay does not apply to the individual mandate (and does not affect employees’ access to the premium tax credits available under the ACA) or any other provision of the ACA that is currently scheduled to take effect in 2014.

The Treasury Department statement also says, “Within the next week, we will publish formal guidance describing this transition.”

We will provide more detailed information when it becomes available.

The full text of the announcement by the Treasury Department can be found at http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/Continuing-to-Implement-the-ACA-in-a-Careful-Thoughtful-Manner-.aspx.