In a move that caught many in the benefits community by surprise, the IRS issued Notice 2016-70 on Nov. 18, giving employers subject to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) 2016 information-reporting requirements up to an additional 30 days to deliver these forms to employees.
The notice affects upcoming deadlines for ACA information reporting as follows:
- The IRS extended the deadline to deliver ACA reporting forms to employees from Jan. 31, 2017 to March 2. The extended deadline applies to furnishing to individuals the 2016 Form 1095-C (Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage) and Form 1095-B (Health Coverage).
The Treasury Department and the IRS determined that a substantial number of employers and other insurance providers needed additional time “to gather and analyze the information [necessary to] prepare the 2016 Forms 1095-C and 1095-B to be furnished to individuals,” Notice 2016-70 states.
- This extension applies for tax year 2016 only, and does not require the submission of any request or other documentation to the IRS.
- The IRS did not change the deadline for filing Forms 1094 and 1095 with the agency. This means there is likely to be no automatic extension to file the 2016 Form 1094-B (Transmittal of Health Coverage Information Returns) along with copies of Form 1095-B, and Form 1094-C (Transmittal of Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Information Returns) along with copies of Form 1095-C.
Employers filing these forms by mail will still need to do so by Feb. 28, 2017. Employers filing electronically (as those submitting 250 or more forms are required to do) must do so by March 31. While the date for filing with the IRS was not extended, employers can obtain a 30-day extension by submitting Form 8809 (Application for Extension of Time to File Information Returns) by the due date for the ACA information returns.
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