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September 30, 2020 is CalSavers Deadline for Large Employers

If your business has over 100 California employees, September 30, 2020 is the deadline to either register with (or certify as exempt from), the CalSavers Retirement Savings Program (CalSavers). You may have already received a notice about registering in CalSavers, or proving your exemption, with an access code and a notice that may be forwarded to employees.  To register with CalSavers or prove your exemption you will need your federal tax ID number and your California payroll tax number, as well as the access code provided in the CalSavers notice. The link to the CalSavers website to register or to claim exemption is https://employer.calsavers.com.

The following bullet points cover some last-minute questions that may still remain.

  • To count employees for purposes of the over 100 threshold, take the average number of employees that your business reported to EDD for the quarter ending December 31 and the previous three quarters, counting full- and part-time employees.   So, for example, if you reported over 100 employees to EDD for the quarter ending December 31, 2019 and the previous three quarters, combined, you would need to register your business with CalSavers on September 30, 2020.
  • If you use staffing agencies or a payroll company, or a professional employer organization, see my prior post on how this impacts your employee headcount.
  • If your business is part of a controlled group of corporations, a group of trades or businesses under common control, or an affiliated service group, and none of the member businesses maintains a retirement plan, then each component business must separately determine whether it is required to enroll by September 30 based on its employee headcount. If a retirement plan is maintained by the controlled group, the employer that sponsors the plan and any other members of the controlled group, etc. are exempt.

If You Are Exempt from CalSavers

  • If you have a retirement plan in place, including a 401(k) plan, SEP or SIMPLE-IRA, you should register as exempt, even if your retirement plan does not cover all of your employees.
  • If you are exempt you cannot auto-enroll employees who are not covered by your retirement plan. However, you may voluntarily notify employees that, if they enroll in CalSavers individually, your business will forward contributions to CalSavers for them.
  • In order for individual employees to enroll in CalSavers they must:
    • Be at least age 18
    • Have a bank account
    • Have either a Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number; and
    • Provide a residential address, and date of birth.
  • Once employees enroll individually in CalSavers they would need to notify your business of how much they want sent from their payroll to CalSavers and your business can forward those amounts manually or through a payroll provider.

If You Must Enroll in CalSavers

  • If you are subject to CalSavers, once you register, you must update your account on an ongoing basis by adding new employees who are eligible for CalSavers (aged 18 or above and receiving a Form W-2 from you) and by removing former employees who are no longer employed.  
  • You do not have to enroll employees in CalSavers yourself.  Once you register with CalSavers, enrollment is automatic.  Employees have 30 days after their hire/eligibility date to opt out.  
  • You can delegate CalSavers duties to your payroll provider, if the payroll provider is equipped to do so and agrees to do so.
  • CalSaver contributions are automatic (unless an employee opts out) and are equal to 5% of compensation.  They increase by 1% per year, up to 8% of compensation unless the employee makes a different election.
  • Contributions come out of employee pay.  There are no employer contributions required or permitted.
  • The funds are invested after-tax in Roth IRAs.  Investment of the Roth IRAs is managed by CalSavers and investment advisors who contracted with the state.  
  • Your business cannot be held liable over CalSavers investment losses.

Messaging, Penalties, Etc.

  • Your business must remain neutral about the CalSavers program and may not encourage employees to participate, or discourage them from doing so. You should refer employees with questions about CalSavers to the CalSavers website or to Client Services at 855-650-6918 or clientservices@calsavers.com.
  • There are penalties for noncompliance with CalSavers.  The penalty is $250 per eligible employee for failure to comply after 90 days of receiving the CalSavers notification, and $500 per eligible employee if noncompliance extends to 180 days or more after the notice.
  • A legal challenge to the CalSavers program as preempted by ERISA is still ongoing but it has not stopped the September rollout for large employers. Employers with more than 50 employees will need to register or prove exemption by June 30, 2021, and employers with 5 or more employees, by June 30, 2022.

The above information is a brief summary of legal developments that is provided for general guidance only and does not create an attorney-client relationship between the author and the reader. Readers are encouraged to seek individualized legal advice in regard to any particular factual situation. (c) 2020 Christine P. Roberts, all rights reserved.

Photo credit Tina Chelidze, Unsplash

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Rust Never Sleeps: ACA Large Employer Tax Liability is Forever

Ordinarily under the Internal Revenue Code (Code), when a taxpayer files a return reporting tax liability (or absence thereof), the filing of the return triggers a period of time during which the IRS can challenge the reported tax liability.  This period is referred to as a “statute of limitations” and the customary period under Section 6501(a) of the Code expires three years after the “return” is filed.  As is explained below, a form must meet certain criteria to be considered a “return” that, once filed, starts the statute of limitations running.

The IRS Office of Chief Counsel has stated, in a memorandum dated December 26, 2019, that because there is no actual return filed reporting ACA taxes owed by Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) under Code Section 4980H, the statute of limitations on the IRS’s ability to collect the taxes never begins to run, even though ALEs annually file Form 1094-C transmittal forms with IRS each year, along with copies of Form 1095-C statements furnished to full-time employees (and part-time employees covered under self-insured group health plans).  Therefore, ALEs remain potentially liable for Code Section 4980H excise taxes for an indefinite period.  The IRS has been actively collecting ACA taxes from Applicable Large Employers owed for calendar years since 2015 and presumably will continue to do so.  This significant amount of potential tax liability will only grow, not wear away, under the IRS stated policy.

Below we spell out how the IRS concluded that it has an open-ended ability to assess ACA penalties.

By way of background, the IRS uses the term “Employer Shared Responsibility Payments” or “ESRP” to refer to the excise tax imposed on Applicable Large Employers under Code § 4980H if they don’t meet their ACA duties to offer affordable, minimum value or higher coverage to full-time employees.

There are two different taxes:

  • The 4980H(a) tax which applies if at least one full-time employee qualifies for premium tax credits on an exchange, and the employer fails to offer minimum essential coverage to at least 95% of its full time employees (or all but 5 of its full-time employees, if 5 is greater than 5%). This tax, currently set at $2,570 annually, is calculated by multiplying that amount times all full-time employees, minus the first 30.  (The tax was $2,500 for 2019).  Depending on the number of full-time employees, this tax can mount quickly.
  • The 4980H(b) tax applies if the employer fails to offer affordable, minimum value or higher coverage to that employee. This tax, currently set at $3,860 annually, is calculated by multiplying that amount times only the number of those full-time employees who qualify for premium tax credits on the exchange.  (The tax was $3,750 for 2019).  This tax can never exceed in amount what the ALE would owe under the (a) tax if it did not offer minimum essential coverage.

It is important to note that Applicable Large Employers do not calculate or report ESRP amounts on corporate or other business tax returns or on any other type of “penalty” return, even though other types of excise taxes are reported on dedicated IRS forms (e.g., Form 5330, Return of Excise Taxes Related to Employee Benefit Plans).

Instead, ALEs annually file with the IRS Form 1094-C, Transmittal of Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Information Returns, together with copies of the individual Form 1095-C Employer-Provided Offer and Coverage statements furnished to full-time employees.  Using this information, the IRS determines which full-time employees might have triggered an ESRP each month in a given year based on the reported offer of coverage (or lack thereof), their employment status for the month, and, among other factors, the cost of coverage offered for the month.  The IRS also receives reports from the exchanges (Form 1094-A Health Insurance Marketplace Statement) on advance payment of premium tax credits to individuals.  By checking the employees’ Form 1040 returns, the IRS then determines, based on household income, which of those full-time employees were entitled to retain some or all of the premium tax credits advanced to them by the exchanges.  Full-time employees’ retention of premium tax credits, teamed with the information reported on Forms 1094-C and 1095-C, triggers imposition of the ESRP on the Applicable Large Employer.  The IRS notifies the ALE of its intention to assess ACA penalties via Letter 226-J, related forms, and subsequent correspondence.

Applicable Large Employers have advocated that Form 1094-C and attached employee statements are returns that, when filed, trigger the three-year statute of limitations under Code Section 6501.  In its memorandum, the Office of Chief Counsel concludes that this is not the case, because the data disclosed on Forms 1094-C and 1095-C is insufficient to calculate tax liability – it only provides part of the information the IRS needs to calculate the tax, the rest of which is obtained from the exchanges, and from full-time employees’ tax returns.  Disclosure of information that is sufficient to calculate tax liability is one of four criteria used to determine when a tax form, when filed, is sufficient to trigger the running of the statute of limitations, as set forth in Beard v. Commissioner, 82 Tax Court 766, 777 (1984), aff’d. 793 F.2d 139 (6th Cir. 1986).[1]

Because the ACA forms do disclose sufficient information to calculate tax liability and thus do not trigger the “filed return” statute of limitations, any other applicable statute of limitations would have to be set forth by Congress in Section 4980H itself.  Citing numerous federal cases holding that no statute of limitations may be imposed absent Congressional intent, and noting that Section 4980H contains no statute of limitations, the memorandum concludes that the Service is not subject to any limitations period for assessing Section 4980H payment.

What this means to Applicable Large Employers is that they now have an added incentive, in the form of minimizing open ended potential tax liability, to ensure that they are offering affordable, minimum value or higher coverage to their full-time employees for so long as the ACA’s ESRP provisions remain in place.  They must also continue to timely and accurately file and furnish Forms 1094-C and 1095-C, respectively, as failing to do so triggers its own tax penalties, which were recently increased.  However, because these Forms do not trigger running of any statute of limitations on collection of the underlying Section 4980H excise tax, there is no “value add” in ongoing ACA reporting compliance.

[1]  The other criteria are that the document must purport to be a return, there must be an honest and reasonable attempt to satisfy the requirements of the tax law, and the taxpayer must execute the return under penalties of perjury.

The above information is provided for general informational purposes only and does not create an attorney-client relationship between the author and the reader.  Readers should not apply the information to any specific factual situation other than on the advice of an attorney engaged specifically for that or a related purpose.  © 2020 Christine P. Roberts, all rights reserved.

Photo credit:  Annie Spratt (Unsplash)

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IRS Gifts Large Employers an ACA Reporting Extension

Under the ACA, Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) must comply with annual reporting and disclosure duties under Section 6056 of the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”). These include filing, with the IRS, a Form 1094-C transmittal form, together with copies of Form 1095-C individual statements that must also be furnished to full-time employees (and to part-time employees who enroll in self-insured group health plans).

In a holiday-time gift to ALEs, the IRS just extended the deadline to furnish Form 1095-Cs to employees by 30 days, from January 31, 2018, to March 2, 2018. ALEs must still file Form 1095-C employee statements with the IRS by the normal deadline of February 28, 2018 (paper) or April 2, 2018 (e-file). However, due to the across-the-board extension to March 2, 2018, the IRS will not be granting any permissive 30-day extensions to furnish Form 1095-C to employees. And, while granting the extension, the IRS still encourages ALEs to furnish the 2017 employee statements as soon as they are able, and also to file or furnish late rather than not file or furnish at all, where applicable. ALEs may still obtain an automatic extension on the filing deadlines by filing Form 8809, and may obtain an additional, permissive 30-day filing extension upon a showing of good cause. In summary, the deadlines for 2017 ACA reporting are as follows:

File 2017 Form 1094-C with IRS:           February 28, 2018 (paper); April 2, 2018, (e-file)

File 2017 Form 1095-Cs w/IRS:               February 28, 2018 (paper); April 2, 2018 (e-file)

Furnish 2017 Form 1095-Cs to Employees:       March 2, 2018

Additionally, the IRS extended, for another year, the transition relief that has been in place since ACA reporting duties first arose in 2015. Under the transition relief, the IRS will not impose penalties on employers who file Forms 1094-C or 1095-C for 2017 that have missing or inaccurate information (such as SSNs and dates of birth), so long as the employer can show that it made a good faith effort to fulfill information reporting duties. There is no relief granted for ALEs who fail to meet the deadlines (as extended) for filing or furnishing the ACA forms, or who fail to report altogether.

This news is be welcome given that all U.S. employers will be grappling with new income tax withholding tables early in 2018 given the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which President Trump signed in to law on December 22, 2018. We’ll be providing more information on the Act’s impact on employment benefits after the Christmas holiday.

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IRS Rolls Out Collection Process for ACA Large Employer Penalty Tax

The IRS is rolling out enforcement of the large employer “pay or play” penalty tax for 2015, with preliminary penalty calculation letters anticipated to begin to be issued between now and the end of 2017.   This will potentially impact employers who, over 2014, averaged 100 or more full-time employees, plus full-time equivalents, and who in 2015 either did not offer group health coverage to at least 70% of its full-time employees, or offered coverage that was “unaffordable,” as defined under the ACA, and for whom at least one full-time employee qualified for premium tax credits on a health exchange.

The sample penalty summary table the IRS has just circulated leaves space for a six-figure annual penalty amount, so substantial amounts of business revenue could be at stake in the collection process. Below is a timeline beginning with receipt of a notice from the IRS of a preliminary penalty calculation (Letter 226J), which includes the penalty summary table; the timeline is based on recently-updated IRS FAQs on the penalty collection process.   Employers must respond by the date set forth in the Letter 226J, which generally will be 30 days from the date of the letter. However due to habitually slow IRS internal processing, employers may have less than two weeks from date of actual receipt, to prepare a response.  ACA reporting vendors may not be equipped to assist with responses to preliminary penalty assessments, so employers who receive a Letter 226J identifying a preliminary penalty amount should look to ERISA or other tax counsel, or an accountant with knowledge of the ACA, in order to best protect their interests.  Not all IRS communication forms referenced below had been released as of the date of this post but it will be updated as the forms become available.

  1. The start point is an employer who is an ALE for 2015 (based on 2014 headcount) and who has one or more FT employees who obtain premium tax credits for at least one month in 2015, as reflected in ACA reporting (and an affordability safe harbor or other relief was not available).
  2. The ALE receives Letter 226J with enclosures, including the penalty summary table, Form 14764 Employer Shared Responsibility Payment (ESRP) Response, and Form 14765 Premium Tax Credit (PTC) List, identifying employees who potentially trigger ACA penalties.
  3. The ALE has until the response date set forth on Letter 226J to submit Form 14764 ESRP Response and backup documentation. The deadline will generally be no more than 30 days from date of Letter 226J but internal IRS processing may cut in to that time budget.
  4. The IRS will acknowledge the ALE’s response, via one of five different versions of Letter 227.
  5. The ALE either takes the action outlined in Letter 227 (e.g., makes original or revised ESRP payment), or
  6. the ALE requests a pre-assessment conference with IRS Office of Appeals, in writing, within 30 days from the date of Letter 227, following instructions set forth in Letter 227 and in IRS Publication 5, Your Appeal Rights.
  7. If ALE fails to respond to Letter 226J or Letter 227, the IRS will assess the proposed ESRP payment amount and issue Notice CP 220J, notice and demand for payment.
  8. Notice CP 220J will include a summary of the ESR payment amount and reflect payments made, credits applied, and balance due, if any; it will instruct ALE how to make payment. Installment agreements may be reached per IRS Publication 594.
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Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: IRS Begins ACA Reporting Penalty Process

Repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by the American Health Care Act (AHCA) may be underway in Washington D.C., but until a final version of the AHCA is signed into law, the ACA is the law of the land. In fact, the IRS is currently issuing notices to employers that require them to disclose whether they complied with ACA large employer reporting duties, or their excuse for not doing so, where applicable. This post describes the notices and how to respond to them.

By way of background, the ACA required large employers to furnish employee statements (Forms 1095-C) and file them with the IRS under transmittal Form 1094-C, and the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) imposes separate penalty taxes for failing to timely furnish and file the required forms. Large employer reporting was required for 2015 and 2016, even if transition relief from ACA penalty taxes applied for 2015. The potential penalties can be very large – up to $500 per each 2015 Form 1095-C statement ($250 for not furnishing the form to the employee and $250 for not filing it with IRS) – up to a total annual penalty liability of $3 million. The penalty amounts and cap are periodically adjusted for inflation.

Employers that failed to furnish Form 1095-C and file copies with Form 1094-C may receive the IRS notices, called “Request for Employer Reporting of Offers of Health Insurance Coverage (Forms 1094-C and 1095-C)” and also known as Letter 5699 forms. Forms may be received regarding reporting for 2015 or 2016. Employers that receive a Letter 5699 form will have only thirty days to complete and return the form, which contains the following check boxes:

  • Employer already complied with reporting duties;
  • Employer did not comply but encloses required forms with return letter;
  • Employer will comply with reporting duties within ninety days (or later, if further explained in the form);
  • Employer was not an Applicable Large Employer for the year in question; or
  • Other (requiring a statement explaining why required returns were not filed, and any actions planned to be taken).

The Letter also provides: “[i]f you are required to file information returns under IRC Section 6056, failure to comply may result in the assessment of a penalty under IRC Section 6721 for a failure to file information returns.”

Employers receiving Letter 5699 forms should contact their benefit advisors immediately and plan to respond as required within the thirty-day limit; it may be necessary to request an extension for employers that are just realizing that they have reporting duties and need to prepare statements for enclosure with their response. In this regard, the IRS offers good faith relief from filing penalties for timely filed but incomplete or incorrect returns for 2015 and 2016, but relief from penalties for failures to file entirely for those years is available only upon a showing of “reasonable cause,” which is narrowly interpreted (for instance, due to fire, flood, or major illness).

Large employers should not look to coming ACA repeal/replacement process for relief from filing duties and potential penalties. The House version of the AHCA does not change large employer reporting duties and it is unlikely the Senate or final versions of the law will do so. This is largely because procedural rules limit reform/repeal provisions to those affecting tax and revenue measures, which would not include reporting rules.   Thus the reporting component of the ACA will likely remain intact (though it may be merged into Form W-2 reporting duties), regardless of the ACA’s long-term fate in Washington.

Note:  a modified version of this post was published in in the Summer 2017 issue of Risk & Business Magazine (Carle Publishing).

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5 Things California Employers Should Know About the Current State of Health Care Reform

by Amy Evans, HIP, President, Colibri Insurance Services and Christine P. Roberts, Mullen & Henzell L.L.P.

There is still a lot of debate going on at the federal and state levels about health care reform. In Washington, D.C., the Senate is working on a second round of revisions to the American Health Care Act (AHCA), but there is lack of alignment within the Republican party about the new plan, and the current administration is now occupied by other items. At the state level, a Senate bill proposing a state-wide single-payer health care system is making its way through the legislature and generating a lot of conversation about a complete overhaul of health care financing and delivery. With all of the uncertainty and political noise, it can be difficult for employers to know where to put their attention and resources. Here are five things California employers should know about the current state of health care reform.

1) California is leading the discussion about single-payer. California Senate Bill 562 is currently making its way through the state legislation. If enacted, SB 562 would eliminate the private health insurance system in California, including health insurance carriers, health insurance brokers and employer-sponsored health insurance benefits. It would replace them with a state-run, “single-payer” system called the Healthy California program, which would be governed by a 9-member executive board, and guided by a 22-member public advisory committee. At this juncture, funding measures for the bill are vague but include appropriation of existing federal funding for Medicare, Medi-Cal, CHIP and other health benefits provided to California residents, as well as an increase in payroll taxes. The estimated cost for this system is $400 billion annually, which is twice the size of the current budget for the entire state. SB 562 is widely popular in concept but also widely misunderstood, with many confusing it for a universal coverage system that would be supplemented by private and employer-sponsored coverage. The bill is currently in suspense with the Appropriations Committee in Sacramento. The committee chair (who is also the author of the bill) may wait for the results of a detailed study on the bill’s cost and impact, or he may choose to send it to the Senate for a vote. If the bill makes it through the Senate and the Assembly (which it is likely to do because it is such a popular concept), it is anticipated that it will be vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown, who has already expressed concerns about the bill’s financing. Alternatively, the legislature could vote on the bill and then table it until a new governor takes office in 2018. Either way, the bill would become a ballot measure to be approved by voters. Progress of the American Health Care Act in Washington, D.C. will impact SB 562 because the state bill would make use of state innovation waivers, which are slated to expand under the AHCA, but federal retooling of health care reform won’t impede SB 562’s progress to the Governor’s desk. Employers who offer health insurance as a benefit to attract and retain quality employees should be aware of the meaning and impact of this single-payer bill and should continue to track its progress.

 2) “Play or Pay” is still in play. The Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s “play or pay” penalties are still in place, so Applicable Large Employers are required to offer affordable, minimum value health insurance to eligible employees or pay a penalty. The current administration has suggested that they will reduce the penalties to $0 retroactive to 2016, but that has not happened yet. The 1094/1095 reporting requirements also remain in place. There has been some recent talk that penalty notices for 2015 and 2016 may be going out soon, perhaps first to the employers who have the largest penalty assessments.†  However, the Internal Revenue Service is also significantly understaffed so the availability of resources to enforce these penalties remains in doubt. Applicable Large Employers should continue to assess their play or pay options, track employee hours and offers of coverage, and complete 1094/1095 reporting for 2017. They should also address any penalty notifications from the IRS in a timely manner.

3) If there are no penalties, revenue has to come from another source. The extremely unpopular revenue-generating pieces of the ACA, including the individual mandate, the employer mandate, and the Cadillac Tax (currently delayed to 2020) are likely to be cut from the new AHCA, but that would create a shortfall in revenue that would need to made up elsewhere. The employer exclusion is a popular target in current discussions – this is the tax benefit that allows employer contributions to health insurance to be considered separate from employee income. If the employer exclusion is capped or eliminated, it will effectively increase taxes on the approximately 50% of U.S. residents who receive health insurance through their employers, and deliver a huge blow to the employer-sponsored health insurance system. Employers who offer health insurance as a benefit to attract and retain quality employees should be aware of the meaning and impact of capping or eliminating the employer exclusion.

4) 2018 Health insurance renewals will be business as usual. Insurance carriers filed their health insurance plan designs and rates with the regulatory agencies (Department of Insurance and Department of Managed Health Care) for 2018, so any substantive changes to plans (for example, removing Essential Health Benefits) won’t happen until 2019. For employers offering coverage, this means business as usual for 2018 health insurance renewals. Expect increases to premiums to average 10-15%. Also expect lots of plan changes – some plans may be discontinued and participants will be mapped to new plans; benefits many change even if plan names remain the same; carriers may reduce networks and pharmacy benefits and increase deductibles and out of pocket maximums to keep premiums in check.

5) Cost-containment tools are gaining in popularity. As out of pocket costs continue to increase for health insurance participants, we will continue to see a move towards consumer-driven health care, where participants are encouraged to be more involved in the spending of their health care dollars. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are growing in popularity again, carriers are providing tools to promote transparency for comparison shopping, and alternative delivery systems like telehealth, nurse on call, minute clinics, free-standing urgent care centers, and even flat-fee house calls are gaining in popularity. Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs), self-funding arrangements and cash-benefit policies can also be effective tools for cost containment. Employers should work with their health insurance brokers and other benefit advisers to assess the value of these tools in their current employee benefits programs.

In closing, employer-provided health benefits rest on shifting legal sands and that is likely to remain the case for some time.   Planning opportunities, and pitfalls, will arise as the reform process moves forward and the informed employer will be in the best position to navigate the changes ahead.

†Hat tip to Ryan Moulder, Lead Counsel at Accord-ACA for this detail.

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Post-Election ACA Prognosis

Change is the order of the day and that extends to the Affordable Care Act, arguably the signature legislative mark made by the Obama Administration.  In short, the ACA as we know it has a limited lifespan.  President-Elect Trump has pledged to repeal it and replace it with something better.  Even if we knew what that something better was, which we don’t, from a practical standpoint, a wholesale repeal of the law is unlikely as it would be subject to filibuster.  As an alternative, the law could be dismantled through the revenue reconciliation process, which is filibuster proof.  That process, however, is limited to provisions in the law that are revenue related such as the individual and employer mandates, premium tax credits, the insurer tax, and other measures meant to pay for the costs of the law, which include the insurance market reforms.  Those reforms, including most notably the prohibition on pre-existing condition exclusions, are not revenue-related but they are expensive for carriers to maintain.  So the Trump Administration and Congress will need to work together to find alternatives to the coverage mandates so that the popular market reforms remain financially viable for carriers.  In short, the legislative process of fixing and/or replacing the ACA will resemble a game of Jenga and like Jenga it will require time and patience.  In the short term, those subject to the law should be keeping their heads down and following the provisions of the law currently in place, including planning for ACA reporting for applicable large employers, due early in 2017.

Employers and the brokers and other benefit advisers who serve them will need more help in this environment than they would if the ACA just continued to unfold in its current form.  This blog remains committed to helping its audience weather the coming changes.

In the meantime, you can find more detailed information on the legislative measures described above, here and here.

 

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Update on ACA Reporting Duties – Revised for IRS Notice 2016-70

ACA reporting deadlines for applicable large employers arrive early in 2017 and, through Notice 2016-70,  the IRS has now offered a 30-day extension on the January 31, 2017 deadline to furnish employee statements – Forms 1095-C.  The new deadline is March 2, 2017 and it is a hard deadline, no 30-day extension may be obtained.  There is no extension on the deadline to file Forms 1095-C with the IRS under cover of transmittal Form 1094-C.  The deadline for paper filing is February 28, 2017 and the electronic filing deadline is March 31, 2017.  (Electronic filing is required for applicable large employers filing 250 or more employee statements.)

Also in Notice 2016-70, the IRS extended its good faith compliance policy for timely furnished and filed 2016 Forms 1095-C and 1094-C that may contain inaccurate or incomplete information.  This relief is only available for timely filed, but inaccurate or incomplete returns.  Relief for failure to furnish/file altogether is available only on a showing of reasonable cause, and this is a narrow standard (e.g., fire, flood, major illness).

In addition to covering the new transition relief, this-brief-powerpoint-presentation summarizes some changes in the final 2016 Forms 1094-C and 1095-c, from last year’s versions, and includes some helpful hints for accurate and timely reporting.

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Untangling ACA Opt-Out Payment Rules

As group health coverage premiums soar ever higher, it has become increasingly popular for employers to offer employees cash in exchange for their opting out of group coverage. When the cash opt-out payments are provided outside of a Section 125 cafeteria plan, they may have the unintended consequence of reducing the affordability of employer group health coverage, because the IRS views the cash opt-out payment as compensation that the employee effectively forfeits by enrolling in coverage.[1]  Unaffordable coverage may entitle the employee to premium tax credits under IRC § 36, and may also exempt the employee from individual mandate duties under IRC § 5000A.  This post focuses on the impact of opt-out payments on “applicable large employers” subject to employer shared responsibility duties under the ACA.  For such employers, reduced affordability of coverage will impact how offers of coverage are reported under ACA reporting rules (IRC § 6056) and could trigger excise tax payments under IRC § 4980H(b).

By way of background, the IRS addressed opt-out payments last year in the form of Notice 2015-87, concluding that a “conditional” opt-out payment – one that requires that the employee meet a criterion in addition to declining employer group coverage, such as showing proof of other group coverage – would not affect affordability. The Notice also offered transition relief for unconditional offers (paid simply for declining employer coverage) that were in place as of December 16, 2015, the date the Notice was published.  Unconditional opt-out arrangements adopted after December 16, 2015 do impact affordability.

Subsequently, in July 2016, the IRS addressed the affordability issue in proposed regulations under IRC § 36, governing individuals’ eligibility for premium tax credits. The proposed regulations refer to “eligible” opt-out arrangements rather than conditional ones.  An eligible opt-out payment  is one under which an employee’s right to receive payment is conditioned on the employee providing reasonable evidence that the employee and all his or her dependents (the employee’s “expected tax family”) have or will have minimum essential coverage other than individual coverage (whether purchased on or off the health exchange/Marketplace).  Reasonable evidence may include the employee’s attestation to the fact of other coverage, or provision of proof of coverage, but in any event the opt-out payment cannot be made if employer knows or has reason to know that the employee/dependents does not have or will not have alternative coverage.  Evidence of the alternative coverage must be provided no less frequently than every plan year, and no earlier than the open enrollment period for the plan year involved.

The proposed regulations are expected to be finalized this year and thus the “eligible opt-out arrangement” rules likely will apply to plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2017.   In the meantime, the following provides guidance to applicable large employers on conditional and unconditional opt-out payments for purposes of 2016 ACA compliance, and ACA reporting due to be furnished to employees and filed with the IRS early in 2017:

Unconditional opt-out arrangement: opt-out payments increase employee contributions for purposes of the “affordability” safe harbor, and should be added to line 15 of Form 1095-C, unless the arrangement was already in effect on December 16, 2015.  “In effect” for these purposes means that (i) the employer offered the arrangement (or a substantially similar arrangement) for a plan year that includes December 16, 2015; (ii) the employer’s board of directors or authorized officer specifically adopted the arrangement before December 16, 2015; or (iii) the employer communicated to employees in writing, on or before December 16, 2015, that it would offer the arrangement to employees at some time in the future.

Conditional opt-out arrangement: opt-out payments do not increase employee contributions whether or not the condition is met.  Do not include the opt-out payment in line 15 of Form 1095-C.

Opt-out arrangement under a collective bargaining agreement (CBA): if the CBA was in effect before December 16, 2015, treat as a conditional opt-out arrangement, as above, and do not include in line 15 of Form 1095-C.

Medicare Secondary Payer Act/TRICARE Implications: An applicable large employer for ACA purposes will also be subject to provisions of the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSPA) that prohibit offering financial incentives to Medicare-eligible employees (and persons married to Medicare-eligible employees) in exchange for dropping or declining private group health coverage[2]. In the official Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Manual, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) takes the position that a financial incentive is prohibited even if it is offered to all individuals who are eligible for coverage under a private group health plan, not just those who are Medicare-eligible. Traditionally the CMS has not actively enforced this rule, and has focused on incentives directed at Medicare-eligible populations. However, there are reports that the CMS may be retreating from its unofficial non-enforcement position with respect to opt-out payments. At stake is a potential civil monetary penalty of up to $5,000 for each violation. As a consequence, MSPA-covered employers with Medicare-eligible employees, or employees who are married to Medicare-eligible persons, should not put an opt-out arrangement in place, or continue an existing one, without first checking with their benefits attorney. Finally, please note that there are similar prohibitions on financial incentives to drop military coverage under TRICARE. TRICARE is administered by the Department of Defense, but along the same principles as apply to MSPA.

Note:   This post was published on October 6, 2016 by Employee Benefit Adviser.

[1] Note: employer flex contributions to a cafeteria plan reduce affordability unless they are “health flex contributions,” meaning that (i) the employee cannot elect to receive the contribution in cash; and (ii) the employee may use the amount only to pay for health-related expenses, whether premiums for minimum essential coverage or for medical expense reimbursements permitted under Code § 213, and not for dependent care expenses or other non-health cafeteria plan options. See IRS Notice 2015-87, Q&A 8.

[2] An employer is covered by the MSPA if it employs 20 or more employees for each working day in at least 20 weeks in either the current or the preceding calendar year.

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Benefits Compliance: Where You Get It; What You Need (Poll)

Changes in the law and continued advances in technology have made benefits compliance a constantly shifting landscape.  As one of many potential sources for your own path towards benefits compliance, E for ERISA would very much appreciate your participation in the following poll, which asks a few simple questions about where you currently get your benefits compliance services and what you may still need in that regard.  Thank you in advance for (anonymously) sharing your thoughts and experiences.