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October 27, 2017 at 12:57 AM
If the current Affordable Care Act employer coverage reporting rules stay in place, the Internal Revenue Service has to do something to ease employers’ desperation over getting accurate Social Security numbers for the employees’ spouses, children and other dependents.
(Related: Feds Send Health Plans on Hunt for Social Security Numbers)
The Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee (IRPAC), a panel that gives members of the public a chance to review IRS procedures, gave the IRS that advice in a new report on 2017 tax administration concerns.
The Affordable Care Act imposed employer health coverage reporting requirements by adding Section 6055 and Section 6056 to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).
To comply with IRC Section 6055 and IRC Section 6056, employers big enough to count as “applicable large employers” under federal rules must send out waves of 1095-B tax forms or 1095-C tax forms to employees, to document whether the employees and dependents were offered what the government defines as “minimum essential coverage.” Employers also must send related 1094-B or 1094-C health coverage offer summary forms to the IRS.
To complete the 1095 series forms, an employer needs the full names and Social Security numbers of the employees and their dependents, IRPAC says.
Many employers have trouble getting the coverage information together in time to meet the current IRS reporting headlines, in part because employee decisions made as late as February can affect the coverage reporting for the prior calendar year, IRPAC says.
