NRECA Employee Benefits Weekly

IRS Extends Deadline to Furnish ACA Tax Forms and Good Faith Compliance Standard for 2016 Tax Year Reporting

Posted on Posted in Group Benefits

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently extended the deadline to furnish Forms 1095-B and 1095-C to responsible individuals from January 31, 2017, to March 2, 2017, for Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual mandate and employer mandate reporting for the 2016 tax year. The IRS won’t consider extension requests on Form 8809 for these deadlines.

The IRS didn’t extend the deadline to file Forms 1094-B/1094-C and Forms 1095-B/1095-C. Deadlines to file these forms with the IRS for the 2016 tax year remain as follows:

  • February 28, 2017, to file forms with the IRS by paper
  • March 31, 2017, to file forms with the IRS electronically

Extensions to these deadlines may be requested by filing Form 8809 with the IRS.

Good faith compliance standard
The IRS also extended the good faith compliance standard for the 2015 tax year to the 2016 tax year. This means that as long as an employer can show it made a good-faith effort to complete the forms and has provided them to responsible individuals and filed them with the IRS by the deadlines, the employer won’t be assessed penalties for filing incomplete or inaccurate returns. The employer must show that it adequately prepared for completing, furnishing and filing the forms, and is taking appropriate steps to ensure it can comply with the requirements for the 2017 tax year.

As a reminder, the initial data report from NRECA to help co-ops prepare for ACA tax reporting for the 2016 tax year will be available in mid-December. NRECA will be providing more information on ACA tax reporting, including a webinar and the final data report, in January 2017.

If you have questions about ACA tax reporting, speak with your field representative. You also can contact the Member Contact Center at 866.673.2299 or contactcenter@nreca.coop.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. NRECA isn’t authorized to provide tax or legal advice to co-ops about this topic. Co-ops should seek confirmation of this information from their tax or legal advisors.

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