IRS Will Again Impose No Penalties on Timely Affordable Care Act Filings, Even if Incomplete or Incorrect; Deadline for ACA Employee Notices is Extended

By Wendy L. Grabel - Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C.

January 10, 2018

The IRS has announced that it will continue its past policy of imposing no penalties on Employers who make good faith, timely efforts to meet their filing requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  An extension on the due date for employee notices will also be continued.

Employers subject to the ACA are now gearing up to complete both the complex IRS filings and the separate information statements that must be sent to employees.

On December 22, 2017, the IRS announced that it will continue its past policies to ease the ACA’s reporting burdens on Employers:

• For all ACA filings that are required to be made to the IRS in 2018 (regarding the 2017 calendar year), the IRS will generally impose no penalties for incomplete or inaccurate filings, so long as a good faith effort has been made to correctly complete the filings, and provided they are timely filed.

• This no-penalties policy continues relief granted since 2015, and extends to both IRS filings and to information statements sent to individuals, required under the ACA.

• For ACA information statements required to be sent to employees regarding the 2017 year, the deadline is automatically extended from January 31, 2018 to March 2, 2018. This extension applies to Forms 1095-B and 1095-C, sent to employees.

• No further extensions are available with regard to these information statements furnished to employees.

• As the ACA information statements sent to employees can now be delayed, affected employees are permitted to file their own tax returns for the 2017 tax year, before these ACA information statements are issued. In preparing their own tax returns, employees may rely on information received from their Employers in order to confirm that they have received Employer-provided minimum essential coverage during 2017.

• A 30-day extension is available for ACA filings made to the IRS on Forms 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C, and 1095-C. Submitting Form 8809 to the IRS is required to receive this 30-day extension.

• Without the extension, the deadline for ACA filings made to the IRS is February 28, 2018 (or April 2, 2018, if filing electronically).

• The extension Form 8809 should be filed by these 2/28/2018 or 4/2/2018 due dates. If Form 8809 is being filed to secure extensions on more than one type of filing, the IRS suggests filing multiple Forms 8809.

The IRS announcement of ACA relief, Notice 2018-6, may be found here:  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-18-06.pdf