U.S. Senate votes to remove the 1099 Provision

The Senate has voted to remove an unpopular provision of the healthcare reform law that requires all businesses to fill out a tax form each time they spend $600 or more.

By a bipartisan vote of 81-17, the Senate on Wednesday evening passed an amendment by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) that would repeal a provision from the ACA that requires all businesses to fill out a tax form known as a "1099" each time they spend $600 or more.

The 1099 provision was intended to give the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) more tools to ensure all taxes that are owed are paid. It was expected to raise an estimated $19 billion to help pay for expanding healthcare coverage to the uninsured as part of the ACA.

But businesses complained that the provision was too onerous, congressional Republicans and Democrats didn't like it, and even President Obama called the provision a "flaw" during his State of the Union address last week and said that he was open to removing it from the law.

ChamberWest signed a letter of support with the U. S. Chamber of Commerce to support the removal of this onerous bookkeeping policy.