A Few Changes for Employers

Despite last year’s legislative drama over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the recent repeal of the individual mandate within the Tax Reform bill, little has changed for employer ACA reporting and compliance.

Changes for 2017 ACA reporting to the IRS are:

• Federal Poverty Level has changed from $11,770 in 2016 to $12,060 for 2017
• Affordability percentage increased from 9.66% in 2016 to 9.69% for 2017
• Section 4980H Transition Relief has been removed and is not applicable to 2017
• Good Faith transition relief that applied to last year’s Forms 1094 and 1095 submittals was extended to include 2017

The ACA law still mandates Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) offer affordable minimum essential health coverage and enrollment in minimum essential health coverage for all full-time and full-time equivalent (FTE) employees.

ALEs must annually report required information about whether or not the employer offered affordable minimum essential health coverage and enrollment in minimum essential health coverage for eligible employees.

Employers Receiving Penalty Letters

For ALEs, ACA reporting still includes the annual filing requirements of forms 1095 and 1094 and the employer shared responsibility provisions. Failure to comply can bring stiff penalties.

In fact, penalty letters from the IRS (Letter 226J) have been sent to non-compliant employers for reporting years 2015, and the penalty amounts are staggering. For example, one 80-employee company that failed to report in 2015 just received a whopping $79,300 penalty letter from the IRS for non-compliance.

New Deadlines for ACA Reporting: Forms 1095-B and 1095-C 

Employers got a Christmas present on December 22, 2017 from none other than the IRS! The IRS Notice 2018-06 gave employers an extra 30 days to provide 1095s to employees. The new deadline for providing employees a 1095 is March 2, 2018. The filing due date for the 1094 forms, however, remains February 28, 2018 (March 31, 2018, if filing electronically).

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