Employers have been granted a reprieve, albeit a short one, regarding the issuance of reports to employees under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The ACA imposes a variety of reporting requirements on “Applicable Large Employers” (employers with 50 or more full-time employees) and on health coverage providers (including insurers and self-insured plans). One such requirement is that insurers and certain other health coverage providers are required to provide their insureds Form 1095-B permitting the recipients to verify in their tax returns that they have at least the minimum required coverage for themselves and their dependents.
Applicable Large Employers are required to provide their full-time employees Form 1095-C, which identifies the months in which the employee was eligible for coverage and the cost of the cheapest monthly premium the employee could have paid under the plan. For a self-insured plan, Form 1095-C also permits recipients to verify in their tax return if they and/or their dependents are enrolled in the coverage.
What Has Changed…and What Has Not?
Originally, these forms were due to insureds and employees by January 31, 2017. Now, the IRS has granted a 30-day extension, making the forms due to employees or insureds by March 2, 2017. Having given this automatic extension to everyone, the IRS will NOT grant individual requests for further extension.
What about the obligation to file this type of information with the IRS? That has not changed – Forms 1094-B and 1094-C, which transmit the 1095-B and 1095-C forms and provide additional information, still must be filed with the IRS by February 28, 2017 (if filed on paper) or March 31, 2017 (if filed electronically). In this instance, however, the IRS will accept requests for a 30-day extension to file these forms.
This is the second year ACA reporting and filing has been required. In the first year, the IRS had a period of “good faith” compliance with the reporting rules. Notice 2016-70 also extends the period of “good faith” compliance for the 2016 reporting year. This relief does not apply to missing or late filings.
Bottom Line
This is just a very small change the precedes what may be a flood of larger changes to come in the ACA. 2017 promises to be an interesting year in that arena.