ACA Reporting Obligations for Contributing Employers

The ACA requires that certain employers and plan sponsors provide annual statements to participants and the IRS about health care coverage provided to its employees (including all union and nonunion employees) in the previous calendar year. Generally, employers with more than 50 total full-time employees are subject to this mandatory reporting obligation. The ACA refers to those employers as “applicable large employers.”

Applicable large employers and the Fund, as the plan sponsor, must send statements to participants and the IRS. An applicable large employer is required to file IRS Forms 1095-C and 1094-C. The Fund must send an IRS Form 1095-B to each participant in the Fund, and the Fund uses IRS Form 1094-B to transmit copies of these statements to the IRS. The IRS uses the information reported by applicable large employers and the Fund to determine which employers and which individuals are subject to tax penalties under the ACA and also to confirm whether an individual is eligible for subsidized health coverage.

When an employer contributes to the Fund for an employee, the employer may not know whether such employee became eligible for coverage under the Fund and, if eligible, whether the employee elected coverage. Under “interim guidance regarding multiemployer arrangements” issued by the IRS for 2020, employers will not need this information from the Fund. For every month in the calender year for which an employer contributes to the Fund on behalf of an employee, the employer is treated as having offered coverage to such employee. This rule applies regardless of whether the employer’s contribution actually results in coverage under the Fund for the employee. To rely on this interim guidance, the Fund must and does meet the following four conditions—specifically, the Fund:

  1. provides “minimum essential coverage,”
  2. meets the definition of “minimum value,”
  3. is available to eligible spouses and dependents, and
  4. is “affordable” since no employee contributions are required.

Since the Fund satisfies these four requirements for the calender year, a contributing employer to the Fund, if subject to reporting, can rely on the interim guidance and report code 1H on line 14 and report code 2E on line 16 of the IRS Form 1095-C (see the chart below). By inserting these codes for employees for whom contributions were made to the Fund, a contributing employer to the Fund need not report any eligibility or enrollment information on its Form 1095-C for such employees.

As previously reported, the Fund will issue, IRS Form 1095-B early in the year to each employee who is covered by the Fund in the previous calendear year. Form 1095-B identifies the employee, spouse and dependents (if any) who were covered for any month during the previous calendar year. The Fund will transmit this information to the IRS using IRS Form 1094-B, but the Fund will not provide this information to the employer.

In sum, the reporting obligations will fall upon the Fund and the contributing employers who are subject to the reporting obligations as follows:

 

Entity Reporting

Form

To

Purpose

Notes

Board of Trustees
of the Fund

1095-B

Employee Participant

Report minimum essential coverage actually provided to each employee, spouse, and dependents (if any)

Fund will provide to employees early in the year

Board of Trustees
of the Fund

1094-B

IRS

Transmittal form to send Form 1095-Bs to IRS

 

Contributing employers with reporting obligations

1095-C

Employee Participant

Report coverage offered to full-time employee

  • Line 14: Report Code 1H (No offer of coverage)
  • Line 16: Report Code 2E (Multiemployer interim rule relief)
  • Do not complete Part III because enrollment is reported by the Fund on Form 1095-B

Contributing employers with reporting obligations

1094-C

IRS

Transmittal form to send Form 1095-Cs to IRS and reports employer information

 

 

As a contributing employer, you must determine whether you are subject to reporting obligations under the ACA, and if so, how to comply. The Fund does not have and accepts no responsibility for filing any forms on behalf of any employer. The Fund cannot provide any legal advice regarding the responsibilities of employers under the ACA, and you are encouraged to seek your own legal counsel.

 

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES