ACA 1095 Reporting - IRS extends due date of 1095-B and 1095-C (employee copies only)

The IRS has issued Notice 2016-70 which extends the due date for 2016 copy of the employee forms 1095-B and 1095-C.  The original due date these forms were to be distributed to employees was January 31, 2017 and has been extended to March 2, 2017.

The due dates for paper filing the IRS copies of these forms has NOT been extended and for 2016 forms is February 28, 2017.

The due dates for e-filing the IRS copies of these forms also has NOT been extended and for 2016 forms is March 31, 2017.

We encourage all users to maintain their timetable for completion of the information returns on a timely basis.

ACA 1095 Reporting - November 1 Update

A new update to ACA 1095 Reporting was posted on November 1st, 2016.  A summary of the changes is as follows:

The Employees screen has been updated with advanced filtering options and a host of features for keeping track of the IRS filing status of each employee.  A new Correction/Replacement wizard makes it easier to file or print corrected returns.  New Employee Information Worksheet Report and Dependent Age Report to aid in employee management.  IRS 1094/1095 Forms can be printed in a paper-saving portrait format.  A global Find and Replace tool has been added to the Housekeeping menu for making coverage code changes or fixing data entry errors.
 

ACA Testing for 2016

The IRS has advised us that the testing period for information reporting opened on November 7th, 2016.  Recall that before any software vendor can get approved for submitting information reports via e-filing, you must under a round of testing where you submit test data to determine if your software can generate properly formatted XML data.

Since ACA 1095 Reporting was approved for the 2015 year, we are automatically approved for 2016; however, we will be submitting test data to the IRS to ensure compliance with some changes that the IRS made to the formatting of the XML data.

We anticipate no issues and will be ready to e-file as soon as the IRS informs us that they are ready to accept e-filed data.  Unlike the initial filing year (2015) when the IRS encountered problems getting their system ready to accept data, we believe that e-filing will begin shortly after the end of 2016.

ACA 1095 Reporting - Preparing for 2016

Now that we are in the 4th quarter of 2016, it's time to start preparing for information reporting for the Affordable Care Act.  If you haven't looked at the changes made to our import templates, you may want to take a quick look at them.  Here's what changed:

1.  All the employee information is not included in the left most columns (cells A - O).

2.  There is now a separate cell so you can mark individual employees that were offered self-insured coverage (cell BC).

3.  You can now enter up to 15 dependents for each employee.

4.  Offer of coverage codes have been updated to include new codes for 2016.

You can download the new templates from the ACA 1095 Reporting product's page on our website, from the Import screen in the current version of ACA 1095 Reporting, or using the links below.

1095-B Template

1095-C Template

Asset Keeper Pro - Bonus depreciation on 39 year real property

The Path Act of 2015 allows you to claim bonus depreciation on qualified improvement 39-year property placed in service after 2015.  Qualified improvement property is defined in Sec. 168(k)(3) as improvements to the interior of any nonresidential real property placed in service after the date the building was first placed in service. 

Qualified improvement property does not include expenditures to enlarge a building, for any elevator or escalator, or for the internal structural framework of the building. 

Further, qualified improvement property must be placed in service after the original building was placed in service.  Contrast this change with the qualified leasehold improvement requirement that an improvement be placed in service at least three years after the building was originally placed in service. I

Bonus Depreciation and Section 179 Conformity by State

Most companies have all their assets in one state.  In those cases, we always recommend that you assign a description of the two character abbreviation for the state or the full name of the state if it will fit in the allowed description area.

However, if you have a client that has assets in multiple states, then the most recent update to Asset Keeper Pro may make the process of calculating state depreciation a little bit easier.

By using one of the following two descriptions, AKPRO will be able to identify this method when you print your State Add-Back Report.

First, you would create a STATE method, which by default, does not allow for bonus depreciation.  Then you would enter one of the following descriptions that applies to all the states listed.

STATE25K - (no bonus depreciation and section 179 limited to $ 25,000) - AR, CA, DC, GA, HI, IN, KY, MD, NH, NJ, and VA.

STATE500K - (no bonus depreciation and section 179 conforms to Federal) - ID, IA, ME, MA, MS, NY, RI, SC, VT, and WI.

On the State Add-Back Report's configuration screen, if you selected AR (for example) as the state rules you want to apply, the state method of assigned the description STATE25K would be automatically selected for you.

We have also compiled a handy reference guide showing the bonus depreciation and Section 179 conformity for all 50 states.  You can find this here.

Quick Trial Balance Pro - Reversing Journal Entries

In QTBPRO whenever you create a journal entry, you can mark a check box to archive it.  Once a journal entry has been archived, you can select it as the template for a new journal entry in the current or subsequent years.

To reverse a journal entry after you reset for a new year, do the following.

1.  Create a new journal entry.

2.  Select the journal entry that you want to reverse from the archived list.

3.  Mark the check box to include the amounts that were saved when the journal entry was archived.

4.  You will be asked if you want to reverse the journal entry.

The entry will be retrieved from the archive and the amounts will be reversed.

Quick Trial Balance Pro - Financial Ratios Added

One of the least used tools used to evaluate the performance of a company is financial ratios.  Quick Trial Balance Pro now includes the ability to generate 28 relevant financial ratios.  The process for setting up your data file so you can generate the ratios is explained in a How-To document that we created.  You can find the How-To here.

ACA 1095 Reporting survey results

ACA 1095 Reporting is an application used to meet the information reporting mandate for all employers with 50 or more full-time employees.

We recently conducted a marketing survey for ACA 1095 Reporting.  The goal was to determine how our users found out about ACA 1095 Reporting in order to expand our user base and allow more employers to take advantage of the features that ACA 1095 Reporting includes.

Two significant findings from this survey resulted.

1.  The vast majority found out about ACA 1095 Reporting via the internet using a search engine.

2.  Over 95% of our users have recommended or will recommend ACA 1095 Reporting to other employers.

With these findings we are trying to do more to make it easier for employers to find out about ACA 1095 Reporting, such as this blog, and we are responding to the suggestions of our users to increase the effectiveness of ACA 1095 Reporting for the 2016 filing year.

To all users who responded to our survey we would like to say Thank You!

Keeping up with our software.

If you've been a user of our software products, you probably are already aware of the number of enhancements that we make on a regular basis.

One of the reasons we adopted the subscription model was so that we could respond to the needs of our users more quickly and be assured that all users had access to updated software releases at all times.

The purpose of this blog is to provide one location where you can find more information about these changes for all of our software applications.  Our goal is to do a better job of documenting those changes here so that this information is available to you as quickly as we release new updates.