Partial Repeal of 1099 Tax Reporting Requirement for Businesses

In April 2011, President Obama signed a law repealing a provision in the 2010 health care reform law requiring businesses to file 1099 tax forms for payments totaling $600 or more in a year to other businesses for goods and services. The new requirement was set to go into effect in 2012. With the repeal, businesses must report only payments of $600 or more to unincorporated businesses for services, as they were required to do before the health care bill was passed.

The purpose of the expanded tax reporting requirement was to catch tax-evading businesses from underreporting income. The 1099 provision was immensely unpopular with small business owners, who argued that the paperwork burden of the requirement outweighed its purported benefits and lobbied strongly for its repeal.