by Brad Peck

Joseph McCafferty reports in CFO "A brief provision in the health-care reform law could create big reporting problems for small businesses."

A little-noticed provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is suddenly generating a lot of attention. The new rule requires all businesses to file 1099 forms if they purchase $600 or more in goods or services from another business during a year. While the rule was largely overlooked in the early analysis of the health-care law, a recent uproar has put it in the spotlight, and efforts are now under way in Congress to repeal the measure.

..."The real complexity is the dimension of adding goods to the mix," notes Benson Goldstein, senior technical manager on the tax staff at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He says the process of verifying tax identification numbers for nearly all vendors and figuring out where to send the forms (to the local store or the corporate headquarters, for example), will create a "superburden" on small companies. In a letter to members of the Senate, the AICPA wrote: "This expansion of information reporting may prove to be so burdensome to small businesses that we believe it will significantly contribute to the hurdles to growth and formation that businesses face."

How much of a burden?  Here is one of the stories sent in to Health Reform Impacts

We have numerous concerns with the impacts of the PPACA, and the latest is the 1099 issue.  Since becoming aware of its existence we’ve evaluated its impact.  In 2009, we were required to issue three 1099s, count ‘em 3.  If Section 9006 is allowed to stand, using the same data, we would end up issuing a 1099 to:

1.  Airlines
2.  Hotels
3.  Rental car companies
4.  Utility providers
6.  Phone service providers
7.  Internet provider
8.  The company from which we bought 1 office phone
9.  The company from which we bought a cell phone
10. The leaser of our office copier
11. Merchant services provider
12. The agency that processes visa applications for our staff
13. Law firms
14. Office supply stores
15. Insurance companies – several
16. Insurance brokers
17. Banks
18. The restaurant at which we hold our summer event.
19. The caterer of our winter event.
20. The golf club at which we held an event.
21. The sign printer for our golf event
22. Our external audit firm
23. An auto repair shop that worked on a company car.
24. A grocery store, and

Ready for this one..

25. Wal-Mart

All in we determined our 3 1099s turn into almost 300 under PPACA.  What does this do besides create paperwork from which we get no benefit? (David Mair)

Help David and small businesses, sign on to the 1099 repeal letter today.