QUESTION: Our company is an applicable large employer (ALE) that sponsors a self-insured group health plan. We know we have to file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C for the 2021 calendar year. When are these forms due?
ANSWER: ALEs must report to the IRS whether they offered full-time employees and their dependents the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage under an eligible employer-sponsored plan, whether the offered coverage was affordable and provided minimum value, and certain other information that the IRS uses to administer employer shared responsibility (under Code § 4980H) and premium tax credits. Since your plan is a self-insured health plan, your company is also considered a “coverage provider” with an obligation to report coverage of all enrolled individuals to the IRS.
The IRS has designated Forms 1094-C and 1095-C to satisfy these reporting requirements. Each full-time employee, and each enrolled part-time employee, receives a Form 1095-C, and these forms are also filed with the IRS. Form 1094-C is used as a transmittal for the purpose of filing Forms 1095-C with the IRS.
You need to be aware of three deadlines:
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March 2, 2022: This is the deadline for furnishing the written statement (Form 1095-C) to full-time employees and to enrolled part-time employees. Although the statutory deadline is January 31, the IRS has issued proposed regulations with a blanket 30-day extension of the deadline (see our Checkpoint article). ALEs can rely on the proposed regulations for the 2021 tax year (forms due in 2022). In prior years, the IRS adopted a similar extension year-by-year—the extension in the proposed regulations will be permanent if the regulations are finalized. No other extensions are available for this deadline.
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February 28, 2022: This is the deadline for filing the Form 1094-C transmittal (and copies of related Forms 1095-C) with the IRS, if the filing is made on paper.
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March 31, 2022: This is the deadline for filing the Form 1094-C transmittal (and copies of related Forms 1095-C) with the IRS, if the filing is made electronically. Electronic filing is mandatory for ALEs filing 250 or more Forms 1095-C for the 2021 calendar year; otherwise, electronic filing is encouraged, but not required.
You can apply for an automatic 30-day extension of the deadlines to file with the IRS—whether you are a paper or electronic filer—but the extension is available only if you file Form 8809 before the applicable due date.
You may also be interested in an “alternative manner” of furnishing Form 1095-C to employees who enrolled in your self-insured health plan and were not full-time for any month in 2021. Rather than automatically furnishing the written statement to those employees, you can make the statement available to them by providing a conspicuous plain-English notice, in a location on your website that is reasonably accessible to all individuals, stating that individuals may receive a copy of their statement upon request. The notice must include an email address, a physical address to which a request for a statement may be sent, and a contact telephone number for questions, and be written in a font size large enough, including any visual clues or graphical figures, to highlight that the information pertains to tax statements reporting that individuals had health coverage. You must retain the notice in the same location on your website through October 17, 2022. If an individual requests a statement, the statement must be furnished within 30 days after the request is received.
For more information, see EBIA’s Form 1094/1095 Workbook at Sections IX.C (“Furnishing Employee Statements: Deadline for Furnishing Statements”) and X.B (“Filing With the IRS: Filing Deadlines and Extensions”). See also EBIA’s Health Care Reform manual at Section XXXVI.D (“Information Reporting of Employer-Sponsored Coverage (Applicable Large Employers)”). You may also be interested in our webinar “Form 1094/1095 Reporting for 2021” (recorded on 12/9/2021).
Contributing Editors: EBIA Staff.
