Repeal of Expanded 1099 Requirements Signed Into Law

President Obama has officially signed H.R. 4, the “Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011” into law. This new law retroactively repeals prior 1099 reporting rules for landlords that were added by 2010 legislation (i.e. the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- better known as Obamacare).

Prior to the 2010 legislation, it was generally required that if you were a landlord that was engaged in the trade or business of landlording, that you were then required to report to the IRS via a 1099 form any payments totalling at least $600 to a single person. Typically, this involved paymetns for services. It should be noted that there were a number of exemptions from the law's reporting requirements notably including payments to corporations.

This essentailly meant that unless you were a full-time landlord, you did not need to comply with the reporting requirements as you were not in the trade or business of landlording.

Then in 201, two pieces of legislation were passed.

Under Obamacare, as of 2012, it was added that payments for goods more than $600 in a 12 month period needed to be reported as well as services. Obamacare further provided that, beginning in 2012, payments to non-tax-exempt corporations—which had previously been exempt from the reporting requirement—would be subject to information reporting.

Additionally, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 provided that, subject to limited exceptions, a person receiving rental income from real estate would be treated as engaged in the trade or business of renting property for information reporting purposes. In particular, rental income recipients making payments of $600 or more to a service provider in the course of earning rental income would have to provide an information return to the service provider and the IRS. This would included all landlords, even if they worked full-time doing something other than landlording, and just rented out a duplex on the side.

After much backlash, the House introduced, H.R. 4, which repeals the provisions of Obamacare and the Small Business Jobs Act referenced above.

Essentially, with President Obama, signing into law H.R. 4, the reporting rules now revert back to what they were before the 2010 legislation (Obamacare and Small Business Jobs Act) was passed. We are now back to where we were before the government started monkeying around with things in the first place.

I guess if nothing else it gave me some topics to blog about : )