It all starts with data getting organized. The employee hours and dependent information includes SSN's and Dates of Birth ... all of it has to be collected starting now for mandatory reporting in January of 2016 (If your company has 50 or more employees). All of this has to be recorded on a monthly basis and reported annually on the 1094-C which was finalized on December 23, 2014. So, this is really just off the press and now the data organization has to begin.
Marketplace Letters and W-2 reporting continues as before.
PayChex, ADP and many payroll providers see this as an additional line of service. They should. It requires a huge increase in data collection, sorting and subsequent reporting to avoid fines that are almost a sure thing at this point. Nothing proposed by the new Congress will change any of this reporting requirement burden. Even raising the Full Time Standard to 40 hours per week won't change any of this reporting.
Hours have to be counted so employees can be counted. Employees have to be counted so the determination of applicable rules can be made and applied. Under 50 employee groups are still free from this reporting but need to be aware of the counting rules. Shared ownership in multiple companies need to carefully look at the counting rules because, like COBRA, 401(k) and other similar Federal Rules, counting crosses Federal ID boundaries more than Tax and Payroll Reporting does.