ObamaCare taxes won’t be delayed until next year

Congress won’t act on a delay of several ObamaCare taxes until next year, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) told reporters Thursday. 

Industry groups launched a full-force lobbying push this year for Congress to delay or repeal some ObamaCare taxes before they take effect Jan. 1.

While a delay has bipartisan support in Congress, the issue has fallen by the wayside as Republicans tried to pass tax reform and avoid a government shutdown. 

Brady said the taxes will be addressed early next year, but said a vehicle hasn’t yet been decided. 

“We’ll have to move forward next year on those health-care taxes,” Brady said. “With the end of the year and tax reform done, that clears the deck to move those things forward.” 

Congress hopes to leave town Thursday after passing a stopgap bill to fund the government through Jan. 19. 

It’s possible a delay of the ObamaCare taxes could be added to a long-term spending bill in January. 

Brady introduced a package last week that would delay ObamaCare’s taxes on medical devices for five years, on health insurance for two years and the “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health plans for one year. 

The medical device tax and the health insurance tax are slated to go into effect Jan. 1 after being delayed by Congress in 2015.

However, industry groups are warning that waiting until January to delay the taxes will cause issues. 

Scott Whitaker, president and CEO of AdvaMed, the largest medical devices association in the world, urged President Trump in a letter Wednesday to take administrative action quickly.

“Retroactive action by Congress next year cannot fully undo the impact of allowing this tax to be triggered on January 1,” he said. 

Retroactive relief from the taxes after they’ve already taken effect “is not feasible” and “action this year is essential,” he wrote. 

He noted that companies will begin making payments in January and going forward on a bi-weekly basis. 

“Companies will spend millions in compliance costs to ensure processes and reporting are up and running to submit money to the IRS and avoid steep compliance penalties,” he said. 

He said many companies have delayed these efforts in anticipation of a repeal or delay of the tax this year and “will be incurring new costs that are not recoverable in a retroactive fix.”