On August 28, the Internal Revenue Service released draft instructions to two forms that large employers will use to report information required by the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) "employer mandate." The draft forms themselves had been released on July 24.
Under the ACA's new reporting requirements, implemented by
Sections 6055 and 6056 of the Internal Revenue Code, large
employers must provide information to the IRS about the health plan
coverage they offer to their employees beginning in calendar year
2015. Forms filed electronically will be due on March 31, 2016.
Summary information will be reported on Form 1094-C ("Transmittal of
Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Information
Returns") and information about each employee will be reported
on Form 1095-C ("Employer-Provided Health
Insurance Offer and Coverage").
The mandate will apply to employers with 50 or more full-time (or
full-time equivalent) employees. Until the instructions were
released, businesses would have had a difficult time setting up
their computer systems to comply with the mandate's reporting
rules with only the draft forms for guidance. "Filling out the
forms without instructions is kind of like putting a piece of
furniture together without the guide," said Neil Trautwein,
vice president at the National Retail Federation.
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