Affordable Care Act

Under a provision of the Affordable Care Act, which takes effect in January 2014, employees who work at least a 30-hour work week must receive health benefits from their employers. And the IRS has indicated that colleges must ''use a reasonable method for crediting hours of service,'' noting that it would not be reasonable to include ''only classroom or instruction time and not other hours that are necessary to perform the employee's duties, such as class preparation time.'' The proposed rules don't provide a definitive formula for calculating instructor workload, but ''further guidance may be provided,'' according to the announcement.

The agency is collecting comments on the proposal through March 18.