Affordable Care Act (ACA) wake-up jolt for IRS Form 1095-C: Non-filing fines hiked to $500 per return
By Helen Karakoudas | ACA Education Director, Integrity Data
You’ve been generous all along in providing health insurance to every one of your employees. Sure, you’ve heard about the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate. And you’ve got the gist: Do right by a new law to offer a certain standard of coverage – or pay the IRS.
Figure that you’re already compliant, so why sweat, right? All this fuss about some new IRS forms for ACA compliance – that’s what less generous employers have to pay close attention to, right?
Not quite.
Complying with the spirit of the Affordable Care Act isn’t enough. You’ve got to comply with the letter of the new health law, too. This detail means that even when you’re doing right by your employees, you’ve got to document – through new annually submitted IRS forms – that you are compliant in this respect in order to be fully ACA compliant.
So if in calendar year 2015, you have 50 or more full-time employees or full-time equivalents, by February 1, 2016 you have to print IRS Form 1095-C for every eligible employee and by February 29, 2016, you have to file its transmittal with the IRS (March 31, 2016, if you’re e-filing).
Or pay a fine per required return.
