Heads up on 1095B

[Snaggletooth]

More Heads Up - it gets worse

Just heard from my IRS Liason officer today. Issuance deadline for 1095s have been extended to March 31.

[JohnH]

Had a strange call about this yesterday. Client is age 80+ and is long-time big utility company retiree with pension. Client is, of course covered by Medicare, and the prior employer provides Med Supplement (or secondary insurance) with drug coverage. Client received a notice that Form 95 would be coming, but probably not by Jan 31. Doesn't make sense to me, but maybe the company's insurance company is just covering all the bases.

[JON]

If your under 50s employers have a qualified insurance plan, which it has to, all the insurance companies know what to do. My experience with the insurance companies is they have been very careful to be ready for this and are more aware of the legislation than our side of the table. In our year-end letter we have a short note and on our check the box ask if a qualified insurance plan and have you made sure on the 1095 plan. I do not have any over 50, but it is my understanding the preps for 1095s are being handled by payroll processors, human resource third party administrators and or 3rd party processors including CPAs. The problem is the information needs to be compiled for the year so businesses not ready for it (processing their own payrolls) who were not prepared for it are going to have trouble getting outside processors to do it now, most stopped taking new clients months ago.

[kathyc2]

Wasn't that filing deadline just extended?

IRS Notice 2016-4

It does appear so. I'm not going to make clients wait until April to file. For those that didn't receive the form, I'll probably just have them initial that they had coverage same as I did last year.

[ttbtaxes]

Wasn't that filing deadline just extended?

IRS Notice 2016-4

[TXEA]

I am going to speculate that the person that your client spoke with was not aware of the requirement for the insurance company to file the form; however, the insurance company knows they will have to prepare the forms.

The customer service people are not trained in tax law.

[kathyc2]

Is this issuing requirement for 2015 or does it start in the 2016 tax year?

Issuing requirement is to report coverage information during 2015. Need to be provided to the insured by 1.31.16.

[taxea]

I've been asking my small employers- less than 50 FTE employee clients that offer health insurance to verify with the insurance company that the insurer will be issuing 1095B's. I'm finding that not all insurers are aware that they are responsible. Just a heads up if you want to also verify ahead of the deadline that insurers will be providing the forms.

Is this issuing requirement for 2015 or does it start in the 2016 tax year?

[TAXNJ]

Why not...

I've been asking my small employers- less than 50 FTE employee clients that offer health insurance to verify with the insurance company that the insurer will be issuing 1095B's. I'm finding that not all insurers are aware that they are responsible. Just a heads up if you want to also verify ahead of the deadline that insurers will be providing the forms.

What survey have you done to find "I'm finding that not all insurers are aware that they are responsible." ? That would be helpful to us if you can publish it here.

Why not give the insurance companies the benefit of the doubt. They have to be in compliance with the law.

Just trying to understand the benefit of us to now check to see if insurance companies are going to do their job vs. us preparing to do our work with the tax laws. But I guess if you have the time and resources to do those type of surveys it may be helpful to share your results as to what insurance companies to be aware of.

thanks

[Golden Rocket]

Good Heads up on this

Yes, good heads up work. Doesn't matter how large the company is (employer or insurance company), in the first year, omissions are very common. And IRS enforcement becomes more lax when the responsible party becomes very very large.

[kathyc2]

Whose responsibility is it under the ACA, the employer or the insurance company?

It clearly is not the responsibility of the tax preparer, but we are the ones who end up with the problems for not having it...

If small employer (less than 50 full time equivalent employees) the insurance company is responsible for 1095B. Large employers 50 or more are themselves responsible for filing 1095C.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that assumes responsibility to keep my business accounts compliant on all employee related gov't filings. I just issued a heads-up, but in the meantime I found out that the one that was saying they weren't responsible was a miscommunication. The agent answered that they would not file b4 he checked w/ the parent company. I still think it's a good idea to check especially for clients who are close to the 50 FTE employees. An ounce of prevention.....

[Golden Rocket]

Whose Dog is it?

Whose responsibility is it under the ACA, the employer or the insurance company?

It clearly is not the responsibility of the tax preparer, but we are the ones who end up with the problems for not having it...

[ATSMAN]

Because 2015 is the first year for 1095-B there is a very good possibility that it may "fall through the cracks". Also only one form with all covered members of the family will be issues so the primary holder needs to make copies and provide to other covered members who may be filing their own returns. Typical for separated and divorced couples.

I have informed my clients to demand a copy from their insurance company/employer before they make a tax prep appointment.

[kathyc2]

I've been asking my small employers- less than 50 FTE employee clients that offer health insurance to verify with the insurance company that the insurer will be issuing 1095B's. I'm finding that not all insurers are aware that they are responsible. Just a heads up if you want to also verify ahead of the deadline that insurers will be providing the forms.