How to E-file Form 1095-B with ExpressIRSForms

If you saw our post the other day about e-filing Form 1095-C with ExpressIRSForms and thought, “That seems helpful, but I need to e-file the 1095-B,” then this post is for you. Today we’re going to go over how to e-file Form 1095-B with our program.

Getting Started
This part isn’t too different from Form 1095-C; you’ll still need to create or log into an account on ExpressIRSForms to start the e-filing process. Once you’re logged in, you’ll see a button that says, “Create New Forms.” Click this, then click “Start Now” under the ACA option.

Employer Information
Next, you’ll start the process by entering the employer information for your return. If you’ve already entered employer data before, you can select it from the drop-down menu. You’ll need to indicate if you, the filer, are an employer or the insurer and whether or not you’re a governmental unit. Once all of the employer information is entered and correct, click Next.

Before you enter employee information, the program determines if you’re a member of an aggregated group and which form you’ll need to file based on the type of insurance offered and the amount of employees you have.

Employer Offered Coverage
The next step is to enter the employee data, including the offers of coverage made to them. You can do this individually, entering each employee and his/her information in one at a time, or you can use our bulk upload option. Just download the Excel template we provide and enter your information - or use one of your own - before uploading the information of all of your employees at once.

Summary
Once all of your information has been entered, you’ll see a summary screen that gives you the opportunity to review and edit your return. Once you’re satisfied, click Review, and we’ll perform one last error check to make sure your return is free of any obvious errors before e-filing it to the IRS.

And that’s really all there is to it. If you’re more of a visual learner, have a look at this video we’ve made taking you step-by-step through the 1095-B e-filing process:

If you have any questions about e-filing with ExpressIRSForms, don’t hesitate to reach out to us! We’re available by phone (704-684-4751) and live chat Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT. For assistance 24/7, send us an email to support@ExpressIRSForms.com.


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Reporting Safe Harbor & Affordability on Line 16 of Form 1095-C

A couple of slots down from Line 14 on Form 1095-C is Line 16, as is usually the case with sequential numbers. The thing about Line 16 is that not everyone will fill it out. Read on to learn more about this reporting requirement.

Form 1095-C, Line 16
The thing to keep in mind about Line 16 is that you’ll only fill it out if certain situations apply for the employee (i.e., the employee not being full-time or employed at all) or for you, as the employer (i.e., Safe Harbor relief eligibility), during any month of the year.

ACA Code Series 2
The following Safe Harbor Codes are used on Line 16 of Form 1095-C:

• 2A: Employee was not employed during this month.
• If the employee worked even one day that month, Code 2A is not applicable.
• Code 2A may not be used for the month an employee resigns.
• 2B: Employee is not a full-time employee.
• Use Code 2B for a non-FTE who didn’t enroll in coverage that month (if offered).
• Use Code 2B for FTEs whose coverage ended before the last day of the month because the employee resigned (otherwise, the coverage would’ve continued).
• Use Code 2B for January 2015 if you offered MEC with MV to the employee no later than the first day of the first payroll period beginning that month.
• 2C: Employee enrolled in coverage offered.
• Code 2C should be used even if another code might apply (other than 2E).
• Don’t use Code 2C if Code 1G is entered in the “All 12 Months” box on Line 14.
• Don’t use Code 2C for any month a terminated employee is enrolled in COBRA (use Code 2A instead).
• 2D: Employee in a section 4980H(b) Limited Non-Assessment Period
• Use Code 2D for any month the employee is in a Limited non-Assessment Period for section 4980H(b).
• If Code 2E is also applicable, use that instead of Code 2D.
• 2E: Multiemployer interim rule relief.
• Use Code 2E for any month the multiemployer arrangement interim guidance applies to the employee.
• Code 2E should be used regardless of any other code that may apply.
• 2F: Section 4980H affordability Form W-2 safe harbor.
• Use Code 2F for any month you used the section 4980H Form W-2 safe harbor to determine affordability for the employee’s coverage.
• 2G: Section 4980H affordability federal poverty line safe harbor.
• Use Code 2G for any month you used the section 4980H affordability federal poverty line safe harbor to determine affordability for coverage.
• 2H: Section 4980H affordability rate of pay safe harbor.
• Use Code 2H for any month you used the section 4980H affordability rate of pay safe harbor to determine affordability.
• 2I: Non-calendar year transition relief applies.
• Enter Code 2I if non-calendar year transition relief under section 4980H(b) applies to this employee for any month.

At ExpressIRSForms, we help make sure you have the right codes in the right places. With built-in error checks, we’ll make sure no obvious errors are sent in your forms to the IRS. And if you have any questions along the way, our support team will be happy to help! Give us a call Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT, at (704) 684-4751. Filing in the middle of the night? We offer 24/7 assistance via email at support@ExpressIRSForms.com.



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ACA Form 1094-C Certification of Eligibility

Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) may be eligible for relief from certain requirements as they transition to payroll and benefits systems that meet Affordable Care Act standards.

In order to indicate to the IRS that they were eligible for this relief on their 2015 ACA return, ALEs will check a box indicating which Certification of Eligibility they qualified for on Line 22 of Form 1094-C. In this post, we’ve compiled a list of the four methods of relief found on Line 22 and how eligibility for them can be met.

Qualifying Offer Method (Box A)
A Qualifying Offer applies if you (the ALE) made a minimum value (MV) offer to at least one full-time employee for each month of the year they were full-time. Additionally, you would’ve needed to offer minimum essential coverage (MEC) to the employee’s spouse and dependent(s) that cost them no more than 9.5% of the federal poverty line (FPL).

Qualifying Offer Method Transition Relief (Box B)
This method of relief is available for the 2015 tax year only. An ALE must have made a qualifying offer (as described above) to 70% of their full-time employees for one or more months of the year. Filing Bonus: If you check Box A or B on your 1094-C, you can use a simplified, generic Form 1095-C instead of individual forms.

Section 4980H Transition Relief (Box C)
Section 4980H relief has two types, depending on just how LE of an ALE you are:

• Option 1: ALEs with 50-99 FT employees are eligible if they didn’t reduce their workforce or their employees’ hours of work in order to meet ACA compliance requirements. They also can’t have reduced or eliminated coverage offered.
• Option 2: ALEs with 100+ FT employees with this eligibility are subject to assessable penalty reduced by 80 employees instead of the standard 30.

98% Offer Method (Box D)
ALEs are eligible to check this box if they made an offer of affordable coverage (that meets MV qualifications) for every month of the year to at least 98% of the employees for whom they’re filing 1095-C forms. These can be enrolled full-time and part-time employees.

If you’re eligible for one of these relief methods, be sure to indicate so on your Form 1094-C. ExpressIRSForms can help prompt you to do this when you e-file your ACA Forms through our system, saving you from making any filing errors. For help getting started, you can call our support team in Rock Hill, SC at (704) 684-4751 Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT. After hours, we offer assistance via our email, support@ExpressIRSForms.com.





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Got A Lot of ACA Forms to Send Out? Bulk Upload to File in Minutes!

ExpressIRSForms has always worked to make e-filing your information returns with the IRS as easy and hassle-free as possible. That’s why we introduced the Bulk Upload feature with one of our first releases, allowing users to seamlessly upload information and create 1099 or W-2 forms.

Now that you can e-file ACA Forms 1094 and 1095 with ExpressIRSForms, the Bulk Upload feature has been tuned up to include these forms as well!

After you start to e-file ACA Forms 1095-B or 1095-C, you’re asked if you want to enter your employee/recipient information individually or all at once. If you opt for all at once, you’re taken to a screen where you can download our ACA Bulk Upload Excel Template to use or upload one of your own.

Once you upload that template, your ACA forms are completed, without you re-entering all the information you already have into little boxes on a computer screen for (what would at least seem like) hours.

And soon, you’ll even be able to use our Bulk Upload option with file formats other than Excel! We’re working now to add the option to upload already completed ACA PDFs for filers who have their forms but no way to e-file them.

Ready to start e-filing? Log into your ExpressIRSForms account to e-file your ACA forms with the IRS today! If you need help getting started, you can give us a call at (704) 684-4751 during our office hours, which are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT, or send us an email anytime at support@ExpressIRSForms.com.




Looking for something a little less hands-on? Check out ExpressACAForms, our full-service ACA e-filing option.

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There's an ACA Deadline This Month! Are You Ready?

As some of ExpressIRSForms’s regular readers may already know, May marks the first month ever with an OFFICIAL IRS DEADLINE FOR ACA FORMS.

This particular deadline was first set to occur at the end of February, following in line with the 1099 and W-2 deadlines to which we’re all accustomed. But since the IRS felt everyone (themselves included) needed a little more time to understand their ACA reporting and get it in order, they extended each deadline by 2-3 months, giving filers more time to prepare.

So while we’ve already had an ACA deadline this year (back on March 31 with the recipient copies), what we haven’t had is a firm, official ACA deadline for filing with the IRS. Until now.

Your recipient copies, due out by March 31 this year and by January 31 in future years, are good practice for getting the IRS copies of your documents correctly filed the first time through (because they’ll need to be correct for your recipients to make any use of them). They’re not, however, a good example of a hard deadline because unless a recipient reports their 1095 missing or not delivered with the IRS, you’re not really held accountable for getting them out on time.

But, seriously, you might want to make sure that doesn’t happen because you could incur some hefty fines, and the IRS will have to launch an investigation into all of your ACA reporting to ensure you’re compliant with the new laws.

If you’re late on this month’s deadline, you can still get a little bit of a break. May 31 is the paper filing deadline (typically it’ll be February 28/29), but the e-filing deadline isn’t until June 30. Since the IRS doesn’t know/care whether you paper file, you’re welcome to e-file if it’s getting close to May 31 and you’re nowhere near ready.

Okay, so that was a bit of a stretch: the IRS does care if you paper file. They care if you e-file. But what the IRS really cares about is if you don’t do either, which you can read about in our ACA penalties blog so we can get back to the matter at hand.

If you do intend to paper file, make sure that 1) you don’t have more than 250 of any one form (1095-B, 1095-C) to file and 2) you have them signed-sealed-delivered on time:

1. Like W-2s, 1099s, and most other IRS information returns, if you have more than 250 forms to file, the IRS requires you e-file them. Which, is kind of a bonus anyway, because it’ll take a lot less time to e-file 250 forms than paper file them, and you get more time to do it!
2. If there’s a chance your paper documents will be late, go ahead and plan to e-file. Most ACA e-filing companies (ExpressIRSForms and our affiliates, ExpressACAForms and ACAwise, included) can help you get your e-forms filled out and submitted based on the information you’ve already gathered. In other words, don’t worry if you miss the May 31 deadline; we’ve got your back on this.

If you have any questions about getting started e-filing your ACA forms (or while in the middle of e-filing them, or even after they’re submitted), you can always reach out to ExpressIRSForms’s friendly, US-based customer support team. We’re available Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT, by phone (704-684-4751) and live chat (www.ExpressIRSForms.com). You can also send us an email anytime at support@ExpressIRSForms.com.

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Ace Adventures: The Countdown Begins

Welcome, reader, to another exciting installment of The Adventures of Ace, the World’s First E-filing Superhero!

Ace has gathered the citizens of ExpressIRSForms in Town Square for a very special announcement. Towering behind him is a new clock, which seems to be counting down to March 31st.

“By the end of this month,” Ace continues, “you’ll need to have sent out your 1095-B or 1095-C forms to your recipients and/or employees to be compliant with the ACA and IRS’s extended deadline for these forms.”

“What do you mean by an extended deadline?” yells a member of the crowd.

“Since this is the first year the ACA forms are required to be filed, the IRS decided to give filers a little extra time to learn how to file their ACA forms. They extended the recipient deadline for the 2015 tax year - which is what we file in this, the year of 2016 - from January 31 to March 31. Similarly, they changed the paper filing deadline for the IRS copies from February 28/29 to May 31 and the e-filing deadline for IRS copies from March 31 to June 30.”

“Wait, so I have to file more than one copy of these forms?” questions another citizen.

Ace, sensing he was losing them, decided to try a comparison technique in his explanation.

“Just like how when you run a business and pay employees or contractors, you have to report to the IRS and your employee/contractor on a 1099 or W-2, you now have to do the same thing for anyone you provide health insurance to. Or anyone you offer to provide health insurance to. So like your 1099 or W-2, the 1095-B or 1095-C forms you file with the IRS will be a copy of the same form you send to your recipients.”

“Yeah, I was wondering,” began another crowd member, “I’ve got a lot of recipients. Is there some, like, program or something that’ll help me mail them out? Or mail them out for me?”

“You betcha!” Ace replies. “In fact, I was just about to tell you about them! You see, if you file with my sidekicks over at www.ExpressIRSForms.com, you can e-file your ACA forms with the IRS and also have them send your recipient forms for you, saving you a lot of time as well as a trip to the post office. Plus, you don’t have to worry about any of those other deadlines because your forms have already been filed by the IRS. You could be done filing a full three months early!”

“And speaking of time,” Ace continues, “I’m running out of it. It’s back to protecting the city from mayhem for me, back to filing those ACA forms for you citizens!”

You can get in touch with one of Ace’s sidekicks by phone (704-839-2270) or live chat (www.expressirsforms.com) Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. We’re also available 24/7 at support@expressirsforms.com.

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ACA Filing in the Year 2017

By now you probably know that the filing deadlines for the ACA Forms 1095-B and 1095-C have been extended. Your recipient forms are due to be sent out before March 31; paper filers must file with the IRS by May 31; and e-filers must transmit their forms to the IRS by June 30. So since we’ve got some time before our first deadline, let’s take a moment to look ahead to one year from today to see what the future holds for ACA filing.

*Buzzing and whirring sounds of the time machine*

Ah, here we are. The year is 2017, the date February 8. The 45th President of the United States, [insert reader’s candidate preference here], has recently been sworn in as the nation watched from their TVs, computers, and iPhone 11s (why they skipped 7 and went straight to 11, only 2016 can tell). But despite all the healthcare talk during the presidential race, ACA filing is still here, and it’s still required of insurance providers and Applicable Large Employers (ALEs).

The ACA e-filers of 2017 are taking a short breather after their scramble to get their 1095-Bs and 1095-Cs to their recipients on time. Instead of having until March 31 like they did last year, the recipient copies were due at the same time as their 1099 and W-2 recipient forms. The lucky ones who used ExpressIRSForms in 2016 were able to quickly fill out their forms and have them mailed on time since all their prior year recipient information had been saved in their accounts. As for the others, well to speak of it now would be too soon...

The paper filers don’t have the luxury for such a break, as their 1095-B and 1095-C forms must be sent to the IRS along with their 1094-B and 1094-C forms by February 28, just over two weeks from now. Reporting the healthcare coverage of all of their recipients by hand sure does take some time, so we won’t disrupt them any longer.

As the e-filers pick themselves up and dust off, a few develop a skip in their step when they realize that by completing their recipient forms with ExpressIRSForms, their forms have already been e-filed and transmitted to the IRS, putting them months ahead of schedule. The rest begrudgingly move forward to make sure their forms are e-filed by March 31, 2017. Some of the paper filers see the skipping e-filers and shed their paper forms like molting swans, joining them in their easier, faster filing bliss.

*Time machine buzzing and whirring sounds*

So the moral of the story: e-file your Affordable Care Act forms with ExpressIRSForms today for a brighter, easier filing season in 2017. If you need help filing or have any questions, just give us a call at 704-839-2270 or send us a live chat Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Or email us anytime at support@expressirsforms.com.

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One Month Down, Two to Go!

Welcome, ExpressIRSFormssIRSForms users! This is the last January blog we have time for now that the first month of the 2015 filing season is drawing to a close. So what does that mean for the typical 1099, W-2, or ACA form filer?

For the Rest of January
Before January is completely behind us, make sure you’ve sent out your recipient forms for your 1099s and W-2s. The deadline to have these forms to your recipients is next Monday, February 1 (since January 31 is a Sunday). It’s a common misconception that your recipient forms only have to be postmarked by the deadline. But according to the IRS’s rules and regulations, you can be fined any time after the January 31 deadline (or, in this case, February 1) if a payee reports that they haven’t received their forms.

That’s why we’re recommending sending out your recipient forms by tomorrow or Friday (if you’re mailing them) to ensure they receive them by Monday.

Coming Up In February
During the month of February, there’s not much to do unless you’re either a) paper filing or b) getting a jump start on other forms due in March.

If you’re paper filing, you’ll need to have your 1099s and W-2s prepared and sent to the IRS by February 29, 2016. Remember if you have more than 250 of either form, however, that the IRS requires you e-file.

Looking Ahead to March
March 31, 2016 is the e-filing deadline for 2015 tax year 1099s and W-2s. March 31, 2016 is also the recipient deadline for 2015 ACA forms 1095-B and 1095-C. Normally, this deadline will be the same as the 1099 and W-2 recipient deadline, so don’t forget to send those out all at the same time next year.

Another deadline to keep in mind in March that you might not have been aware of is the March 15, 2016 Business Extension Form deadline. Form 7004 can be filed through our sister program, ExpressExtension, by businesses for a 5-6 month extension of time to file their tax returns. This is not an extension of time to pay any taxes owed, but it can get you a little more time to get everything in order to file.

If you need any help over the next two months, we’re here for you! Well, we’re here for you all year long, but we’re especially here for you during tax season. Just give us a call (704-839-2270) or send us a live chat Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. Or you can send us an email anytime at support@expressirsforms.com!

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