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.