Ensure Compliance
There are many IRS & Department of Labor regulations overseeing certain facets of an employer's benefits program. There are different rules for different businesses and while it may feel like the rules are ever changing, we’re here to keep things in check for you.
ACA Compliance
The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, requires employers with 50 or more employees to offer affordable healthcare insurance coverage to these employees. Since ACA Compliance reporting and audits only began in 2016, becoming familiar with compliance requirements has proven complicated and burdensome to some companies. There is no choice, however, but to comply.
COMPLIANCE AND HEALTHCARE COVERAGE ARE THE LAW
If you are attempting to limit your expenses and cut employee healthcare benefits because of a tight budget, that is no longer an option under the ACA. Failure to provide compliant healthcare coverage will have companies looking at heavy monetary penalties.
The first challenge to meet is to treat ACA compliance as an ongoing responsibility. It’s not possible to scramble at the last minute to meet ACA standards and avoid fines. Your employees deserve healthcare coverage year-round without pause, and the law makes it clear that you must provide it to them.
IS YOUR COMPANY IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE ACA?
Educating yourself and your employees about ACA compliance, related tax forms, and healthcare options can be a daunting task to the uninitiated. We’re ready to help you find the right vendor to manage the ACA compliance workload for you. From gathering proof of full-time employees to calculating healthcare costs, relying on an expert to help you satisfy compliance requirements – and serve your employees well – is the smart move for any business, small or large.
1094 & 1095 Reporting and E-File Services
IRS Forms 1094-C and 1095-C are filed by employers that are required to offer health insurance coverage to their employees under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The main difference between them is that the 1095-C provides information about your health insurance plan and is sent to all employees and the IRS, while the 1094-C acts as a cover sheet about the 1095-C and is sent only to the IRS.
Why the IRS needs the 1095-C
The IRS needs information from 1095-C forms because it has a central role in enforcing the Affordable Care Act. Companies that are required to offer insurance but don’t, may have to pay a penalty. By collecting 1095-C forms, the IRS can track who is and isn't making coverage available to workers.
ERISA compliance refers to the federal requirements employers must follow to offer welfare and retirement programs. Companies that offer benefit packages to their employees are regulated by ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security ACT) and maintaining compliance with these guidelines is a federal requirement.
If you offer group health insurance, you are required to distribute an ERISA Wrap SPD document to all Plan participants within 120 days of the Plan's effective date.
Form 5500 is an annual report that contains information about a company’s benefits, including retirement, welfare benefit plans (health, life, dental), fully-insured, and self-funded plans. Employers are required to file Form 5500 with the Department of Labor (DOL) when their plan has 100 or more employee participants at the beginning of a plan year and when their plan is funded through a trust, regardless of the number of participants. Government entities and church groups are exempt from Form 5500 filing.
5500’s and associated schedules are due by the last day of the seventh month following the end of the plan year (e.g. July 31st for a calendar based plan year).
Employers that file Form 5500 late may face two sets of penalties – one from the IRS and another from the DOL.
There is a delinquent flier voluntary compliance program designed to encourage voluntary compliance with the annual reporting requirements. The program gives delinquent plan administrators a way to avoid potentially higher civil penalty assessments by satisfying the program’s requirements and voluntarily paying a reduced penalty amount.
To better understand ERISA wrap documents, it would be best to start with ERISA’s Summary Plan Description (SPD) requirement. According to the DOL, qualified plan administrators are required to provide participants with an SPD—which explains “what the plan provides and how it operates”—within 90 days of coverage and within 30 days of a request.
More specifically, the DOL clarifies that an SPD is the “primary vehicle for informing participants and beneficiaries about their plan” and “must be written for an average participant and be sufficiently comprehensive to apprise covered persons of their benefits, rights, and obligations under the plan.”