On July 2, the Obama administration announced a one-year delay in employer shared responsibility (a/k/a “pay-or-play”) rules under the Affordable Care Act.  The administration’s announcement also delayed for a year certain related reporting requirements.  While this move was generally welcomed by the employer community, the delay should not be read as a reason to ignore the requirement until late next year. For certain purposes associated with the collection of data, tracking will need to begin as early as January 1, 2014 (or even earlier). Employers that fail to pay attention could find themselves having to play “catch-up.” Smart employers will use the delay to better understand the law and to chart a path to compliance. The reasons why are explained in the article found here.