The Affordable Care Act of 2010 brought some additional recording requirements with it for certain businesses. To discuss this I invited Greg Kenworthy, who heads up the form 1095 reporting area of our Firm, to talk with us.
So let’s get into it.
– What is a 1095 and what kind of employers are required to file it?
Sure, so there are actually three forms in the 1095 suite:
• 1095A form, which is issued by what’s known as the Obamacare exchanges.
• The 1095B form, which is typically issued by insurance companies.
• And then the 1095C form, which is what we commonly help our clients with. It is issued by employers who are required to file 1095C forms.
– And at that point, I think those forms are required to be filed for people who have full time equivalent employees of 50 or more. Correct?
That’s correct. If the employer employs 50 full time equivalent employees or more, they are required to offer affordable healthcare insurance, and as a result, they are required to file form 1095C to report that they indeed did offer affordable health insurance to their employees.
– When is that form generally due?
So March 4th is the date that you have to give it to your employees, and the paper forms with the IRS, they’re due February 9th of 2019. If you’re electronically filing the forms with the IRS, they are due April 4th.
– Good information. Now there’s been a lot of talk in the media recently about some changes to the affordable care act. Do those tax changes from the reform bill impact this?
Fortunately, not really. The new tax law changes that were passed right at the end of 2017 did not affect the employer mandate to offer health insurance. What they did was effectively eliminate the penalty for the individual mandate. But the employer mandate, meaning that you have 50 full-time equivalent or more employees working for you, you still are required to offer insurance and issue forms 1095C.
– So in this case, the employers who are filing that form should continue to file it?
Absolutely.
– So if anyone wants to get in touch with your group, how do they do that? I know you’re on the websites and a couple other places.
Yeah, the best way is to call our 800- number: 1-800-658-9077 and just ask to speak with someone about form 1095 preparation. Also, visit www.1095Hawk.com.
– Okay, now I know a lot of people for larger employers do deal with the 1095C, but the 1095A I think is interesting too because that’s where if you have a subsidy, that’s the form you get from the IRS, correct?
Correct, the form comes right from the exchanges known as the Obamacare exchanges. That form affects your individual tax return greatly and it affects how much subsidy you will get that year.
– Excellent, and I know we do some planning for people in regard to that form also, correct?
Yep, absolutely. These are things that you can do even in early 2019 that can affect the subsidy that you received I 2018.
Good information Greg, thanks for coming on.
