Employers and insurers subject to ACA reporting requirements just got a late Christmas present from the IRS. The IRS has decided to extend the deadline for furnishing notices to individuals by two months and for filing the reports with the IRS by three months.
Deadlines to furnish the following forms to individuals have been extended from January 31, 2016 to March 31, 2016:
Deadlines to file the following forms with the IRS have been extended from February 29, 2016 to May 31, 2016 (if not filing electronically) and March 31, 2016 to June 30, 2016 (if filing electronically):
The IRS will not allow any other deadline extensions for these forms. If you can’t meet the extended deadline, you should still furnish and file the forms as soon as possible, as the IRS may abate penalties if you can demonstrate reasonable cause for not meeting the deadlines.
Also, keep in mind that some individuals will need to rely on information in the 1095-B and 1095-C forms when completing their 2015 tax returns. Thus, if you decide to wait until the extended deadline before furnishing these forms, your employees may start asking you for information as they begin to prepare their tax returns.
You can read IRS Notice 2016-4 here. If you have questions about ACA reporting requirements, please contact Norbert Kugele at nkugele@wnj.com or 616.752.2186; or April Goff at agoff@wnj.com or 616.752.2154.
