Even the IRS Doesn't Want to Enforce Obamacare

The IRS has finally admitted what Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Cong. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and others said for months: the new individual mandate provision will require an army of new IRS agents. How many is anyone's guess. But the IRS is now saying its current workforce just can't handle the load. One of the provisions in Obamacare will require all businesses in America (even the smallest ones) to issue 1099-MISC information reporting forms to any person or corporation which receives at least $600 in business. So, a gas station which a small business owner fills up his company-owned car at will get a 1099-MISC. An airline gets one. All the restaurants he meets clients in gets one. If you think this is crazy, you're in good company. So does the IRS. While the IRS has signaled (according to the linked report) that credit and debit card transactions will be exempted, this will mean that paper checks, electronic checks, wire transfers, cash transactions, and anything not involving plastic will now require a 1099-MISC. Even worse, you can't e-file a 1099-MISC very easily. A twenty-fold increase in the forms (which a source in the story projects) would swamp and overwhelm the IRS. That's before counting the amended 1099s when businesses challenge other business' accounting. ATR