On December 2, 2019, the IRS released IRS Notice 2019-63, extending the deadlines for distributing ACA reporting forms to individuals. The IRS also provided relief from penalties for good faith effort and from the requirement to distribute the Form 1095-B to individuals. As background, the ACA imposes two reporting requirements under Sections 6055 and 6056. Section 6055 requires entities that provide minimum essential coverage to report to the IRS and to covered individuals the months in which the individuals were covered. Section 6056 requires applicable large employers (under the employer mandate) to report to the IRS and full-time employees whether they offered minimum essential coverage that was affordable and minimum value.

As the IRS has done for the last four reporting years, they have extended the date by which employers must distribute Forms 1095-B or 1095-C to individuals. Those forms must now be distributed by March 2, 2020 (instead of January 31, 2020). However, as in previous years, this notice does not extend the date by which employers must file Forms 1094-B/C and 1095-B/C with the IRS. So reporting entities must still file Forms 1094-B/C and 1095-B/C with the IRS by February 28, 2020, if filing by paper and March 31, 2020, if filing electronically.

If an employer doesn’t comply with the deadlines, the employer can be subjected to penalties. The IRS also indicates that employers can no longer request an automatic extension of the due date by which they must distribute the forms to individuals, as the extension they’ve provided is just as generous. In fact, the IRS will not respond to any such extension. Employers may still request an automatic extension to file the Forms 1094-B/C and 1095-B/C with the IRS, as long as they submit a Form 8809 on or before the due date of those filings.

The IRS is also reinstating relief recognizing good faith effort made by employers that file the 2019 forms. Specifically, employers that timely file and distribute their required Forms 1094-B/C and 1095-B/C will not be subject to penalties if the information is incorrect or incomplete. In determining what constitutes a good faith effort, the IRS will take into account whether an employer or other coverage provider made reasonable efforts to prepare for reporting, such as gathering and transmitting the necessary data to a reporting service provider or testing its ability to use the ACA Information Return Program electronic submission process. This relief doesn’t apply to a failure to timely furnish or file a statement or return, and it doesn’t extend to employer mandate penalties (for large employers that didn’t offer affordable, minimum value coverage to full-time employees pursuant to the ACA’s employer mandate).

Notably, this notice also provides penalty relief for employers, which will allow them to forego distributing the Form 1095-B to individuals. This comes after the IRS accepted comments on the necessity of the Form 1095-B now that the individual mandate penalty has been zeroed out. As long as employers post a notice on their website that the document is available upon request, and then fulfill any such request within 30 days, they don’t have to distribute the Forms 1095-B to covered individuals.

This relief is not available for Form 1095-C, but can be applied to employees who are not full-time and only receive a Form 1095-C to meet the Form 1095-B reporting requirement. In other words, those employees who are only receiving a Form 1095-C because the employer uses Part III to comply with Section 6055 no longer have to be provided a Form 1095-C. Also keep in mind that employers that must provide and file Form 1095-C to full-time employees must still complete Part III of the Form, indicating the covered spouses and dependents of the full-time employees.

Employers should keep this guidance in mind as they are preparing their filings and distributions. NFP’s Benefits Compliance Team will continue to monitor any developments that might impact employer reporting obligations in future years.

IRS Notice 2019-63 »

Source: NFP BenefitsPartners