Affordable Care Act Forms: An Overview

Coming this tax season to the best* IRS-authorized e-filing service (ExpressIRSForms) are the newly required Affordable Care Act Forms 1094-B, 1094-C, 1095-B, and 1095-C. These forms were created by the IRS so that insurance providers (including government-sponsored programs, eligible employer-sponsored plans, and individual market plans) could report certain health care coverage information to the IRS and to their recipients.

So what are these forms all about anyway? Well, ExpressIRSForms is here to answer your questions. Our next few blogs will be ACA-themed to get you as prepared as possible for filing these new forms! Today, we’ll start with the basics and a general overview of the forms.

Form 1094
Form 1094 is the transmittal form, and will normally only be filled out by you if you’re paper filing. Most e-filing services (ExpressIRSForms included) will automatically fill out Form 1094 for you and transmit it to the IRS along with your other forms. Form 1094 contains a general summary of the information about the minimum essential health care coverage you offer found on the 1095 forms you submit.

Form 1095
You can think of a 1095 form as a W-2 for health care coverage: it breaks down the health care coverage offered to and received by your recipients by month for the previous year, and you’ll send a copy of it to your recipient while the original goes to the IRS. All of your 1095 forms are sent together to the IRS along with the 1094 transmittal form.

B or C?
The letters attached to the numbers 1094 and 1095 on these forms help the IRS to identify your contractual relationship with your health care recipients. If you’re a health insurance issuer or carrier, you’ll file Forms 1094-B and 1095-B. If you’re an Applicable Large Employer (ALE), you’ll file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. ALEs are employers with at least 50 full-time employees or full-time equivalents; these employers must offer at least the minimum essential coverage of health care to their employees according to the Affordable Care Act.

If you want to go ahead and get started working with new ACA forms, you can use ExpressIRSForms to begin filing the optional 2014 year absolutely free! And since our software is cloud-based, all of your contact information will be saved in your Address Book; that way, in a few months when you’re working on your 2015 returns, you can be finished in a matter of clicks.

And if you have any questions about the ACA forms or e-filing for any of our other information returns, feel free to reach out to us! We’re available by live chat via our website and by phone at (704) 839-2270, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. We also offer 24/7 email support at support@expressirsforms.com.

*Study results may be biased