This comes as a surprise to many, but YES – if you are an employer with 50+ employees (or full time equivalent employees), you must complete ACA Reporting to the IRS (forms 1094 and 1095).
But I’m Fully Insured . . . My insurance carrier will take care of this right?No!
You might have thought that your insurance carrier was going to take care of this, but they only report the portion that they are required to report as an insurance carrier. Employers still have additional responsibilities.
The easiest way to think about this is by considering what the Affordable Care Act accomplished:
- Individual Mandate – all US citizens must now have health insurance or pay a penalty
- Employer Mandate – all large employers (50+ employees) must offer coverage and that coverage must be affordable
- The IRS is in charge of making sure these things happen.
So how does the IRS make sure that an individual did have health insurance and doesn’t owe an individual tax penalty?
This is accomplished through the IRS receiving specific forms from the various places that an individual could have coverage:
- The exchanges send the IRS the ‘A’ Forms (1095A)
- The insurance carriers send the ‘B’ Forms (1095B)
- And self insured employers must report everyone covered under their plan for the year using the ‘C’ Forms (part 3 of 1095C)
How does the IRS make sure each large employer (a) offered coverage and (b) that the coverage was affordable?
This is accomplished through the IRS receiving a completed form 1095 by ALL LARGE EMPLOYERS. Specifically, part 2 of form 1095C is used to accomplish this task.
So as you can see this is not something that will be fulfilled by insurance carriers, and the penalties for not filing are substantial. (IRS Fines)
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