The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) is designed to make affordable health care more accessible to more people than ever before. However, ACA also created the need for employers to prepare and file a seemingly endless mountain of paperwork. In fact, the IRS requires reports to be submitted by certain deadlines or face severe penalties. Fortunately, the IRS handed employers and plan administrators some good news about their 2018 ACA reporting requirements.
Employers and ACA Reporting
Most employers have to submit reports to the IRS regarding the health care coverage provided their employees. The IRS also requires some reports be provided directly to employees. Information reporting requirements include:
- Applicable large employers, or ALEs, file information returns with the IRS, with copies going to employees.
- Self-insured ALEs typically file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C.
- Fully-insured ALEs file Forms 1094-B and 1095-B.
Employers usually are required to send copies of certain forms to their employees by January 31.
2018 ACA Reporting Standards
IRS Notice 2018-94 primarily offered two welcome types of relief to employers:
- Extended Deadline to Send Forms 1095-B and 1095-C. Employers send these to employees by January 31. The IRS has extended that deadline to March 4, 2019.
- Good-Faith Penalty Relief. The IRS also extended relief from late-filing penalties for employers that have made a reasonable effort to comply with 2018 reporting deadlines.
Please note that not all reporting dates have been extended. The deadlines to file 2018 information returns with the IRS are still February 28, 2019 if filing paper copies and April 1, 2019 if filing electronically.
Is Your Company Meeting Its ACA Reporting Deadlines?
Even with the extended deadline, it’s important to get started on ACA compliance as early as possible. You may need help understanding and complying with the extensive government regulations surrounding ACA.
