The “Skinny Repeal” that promised to eliminate the individual and small business mandates of Obamacare was unsuccessful. Obamacare and its reporting requirements still applies to employers with 50 or more full-time employees (as defined under the Affordable Care Act). Here are some of the requirements and deadlines for employers under the ACA Law.
Requirements
Employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees must provide benefits under the ACA to avoid paying penalties. The IRS states, “To determine its workforce size for a year, an employer adds its total number of full-time employees for each month of the prior calendar year to the total number of full-time equivalent employees for each calendar month of the prior calendar year and divides that total number by 12.”
The Employer Mandate
Under the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility provisions, certain employers (called applicable large employers or ALEs) must either offer minimum essential coverage and that provides “minimum value” to their full-time employees (and their dependents), or potentially make an employer shared responsibility payment to the IRS. The employer shared responsibility provisions are sometimes referred to as “the employer mandate” or “the pay or play provisions.” The vast majority of employers will fall below the ALE threshold number of employees and, therefore, will not be subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions. Employers with more than 250 full-time or full-time equivalent employees are required to file electronically by the IRS, rather than by paper.
Required reporting
The IRS requires employers submit all IRS required reporting documents for Section 6055 & 6056 (1094-B, 1094-C, 1095-B, and 1095-C). These forms needed to confirm full-time and full-time equivalent employees are getting minimum essential care under the law.
There is a reporting requirement for sending 1095-C and 1094-C transmittals to the IRS. Under the law, employers are required to send 1095-C to all employees to provide information on their healthcare coverage. Form 1094-C is sent only to the IRS as a cover sheet for the 1095-C forms filed with the agency.
Specifically, Form 1095-C provides information about the type of healthcare provided to your employees, as well as information on whether employees might be eligible for a premium tax credit. The form also provides relevant information about periods employees may have gone without required health coverage.
Form 1094-C is a cover sheet providing additional information to the IRS, including the name of the employer, number of employees and the number of 1095-C forms sent to employees and the IRs.
For 2018, the deadlines are:
• January 31, 2018 — Send Form 1095 copies to recipients/employees
• February 28, 2018 — Paper filing of 1095s (and 1094 transmittals) to IRS
• March 31, 2018 — E-filing of 1095s (and 1094 transmittals) to IRS
Employers missing the filing deadlines with the IRS for forms 1094-C and 1095-C or who file forms containing inaccurate information could face penalties of up to $260 per filing. Employers could also face a fine of $260 per filing for failure to distribute forms to employees or file with the IRS.
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