Welcome to 2016 and to the new, more stringent ACA reporting rules.
If the new ACA rules have not been on your radar, the time is now- or you can be hit with steep fines for non-compliance. We’re talking fines of $250 per employee statement or federal return (up from $100) to a maximum of 6 million per year for failure to comply. What’s the deal with the new rules?
ACA (Affordable Care Act) requirements apply to Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) and impose the reporting of annual information returns to the IRS. It also requires employers to provide health plan coverage information to their full-time employees. Forms 1094-C and 1095-C are filed annually and must provide data for each month of the calendar year capturing information such as whether the employee and dependents were offered coverage, the cost of the coverage and employee and dependent identifying information.
It’s critical that employers demonstrate a good faith effort to comply with the ACA reporting rules. The IRS will not impose penalties under sections 6721 and 6722 and will provide penalty relief for employers that demonstrate good faith efforts to properly track the necessary data and to provide the federal reports as well as employee health coverage statements. So there is still time to get on track!
What can you do?
- Learn what you need to know by reviewing the ACA IRS Publication 5196. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5196.pdf
- Review the IRS-provided questions and answers about information reporting by employers on Form 1094-C and Form 1094-C. https://www.irs.gov/Affordable-Care-Act/Employers/Questions-and-Answers-about-Information-Reporting-by-Employers-on-Form-1094-C-and-Form-1095-C
- Understand the information that is required in Forms 1094-C and 1095-C to ensure you are capturing the data or can begin to capture the data
- Create procedures for providing health plan statements to employees and for filing the federal compliance forms
- Work with an HR provider to help meet the reporting requirements as well as stay on top of on-going regulatory changes
EPAY can help. We not only stay abreast of jurisdiction compliance regulations, we make compliance a regular part of our development efforts. We also have the Affordable Care Act Toolkit which offers a host of unique reporting capabilities to help you stay in control of your workforce and in compliance with the ACA. The ACA toolkit helps you contain costs, avoid penalties and streamline reporting requirements so that you can focus on more strategic initiatives in your organization.
Streamline employee information tracking and ACA compliance with one unified HCM system. Schedule a demo today.