The IRS has granted employers an extension for mailing ACA forms, thus providing a little breathing room for those involved in preparing the forms.

Who Must File the ACA Form 1095-C?

As most business owners are now aware, under the ACA Employer Shared Responsibility Provisions, employers who average more than 50 full-time plus full-time equivalent employees during the previous calendar year must prepare and mail a Form 1095-C to each full-time employee. Although the form is not required for tax filing purposes, it can be viewed as the W-2 for medical insurance coverage.

How to Know if You Are Required to Provide the Form 1095-C

An employer must first determine if they are required to provide the Form 1095-C to their employees. This determination involves a specific formula for counting the employees. Additionally, other variants must be considered such as seasonal employees, variable hour employees, and understanding the IRS’s definition of a full-time employee.

What does the Form 1095-C Include?

The Form 1095-C reports the monthly offer of qualifying medical coverage (or the lack of), employee eligibility, enrollment or waiver decision, affordability of the monthly premium to the employee, and the employee’s employment status. Complicating this bounty of required information, the IRS has established a complex system of codes used to describe each of these reporting elements.

To sum it up, preparing the Form 1095-C entails the understanding of the intricate requirements, definitions, formulas, and reporting codes of the provisions. The process can involve payroll vendors to determine an employee’s full-time status and affordability of coverage, as well as benefits or human resources departments for identifying offers of coverage, cost of coverage, and enrollments.

How Can LBMC Employment Partners, LLC, Help?

This is a substantial task for a business owner who would prefer to spend his or her time running the business. LBMC Employment Partners, LLC, can help with this filing requirement, including calculating the number of employees, confirming if a filing is required, as well as preparing and mailing the forms to employees.

If you need assistance with your ACA Employer Shared Responsibility requirements, call Rebekah Harney at 615-309-2262. She can start the process of helping employers comply with the ACA Form 1095-C provision, or contact LBMC Employment Partners today to learn more!

Original Post: 2/15/18; Updated 1/14/19