Overview: ACA Forms 1094 with 1095 to the IRS
The Affordable Care Act requires Applicable Large Employers with 50 or more full-time employees, including those with full-time equivalent employees, to file Forms 1094-C, and a Form 1094-C designated as the Authoritative Transmittal, and Form 1095-C for employees with full-time status (or equivalent) for one or more months each calendar year. ALEs that offer health coverage through a self-insured plan must report this information for the entire calendar year for each employee enrolled in self-insured coverage. ALEs must complete Form 1095-C, Parts I, II and III for any employee enrolled in the health coverage, whether the employee is a full-time employee for any month of the calendar year. ALE Members that offer employer-sponsored, self-insured coverage also use Form 1095-C to report information to the IRS and to employees about individuals who have minimum essential coverage under the employer plan.
A Form 1094-C must be filed when an ALE files one or more Forms 1095-C. An ALE may file multiple Forms 1094-C, each accompanied by Forms 1095-C for a portion of its employees, provided that a Form 1095-C is filed for each employee for whom the ALE is required to file. If an ALE files more than one Form 1094-C, one Form 1094-C must be identified on line 19, Part I as the Authoritative Transmittal with aggregate data for all full-time employees and all employees, as applicable.
Example 1: Employer A, an ALE, files a single Form 1094-C, attaching Forms 1095-C for each of its 100 full-time employees. This Form 1094-C should be identified as the Authoritative Transmittal on line 19, and the remainder of the form completed as indicated in the instructions for line 19.
Example 2: Employer B, an ALE, files two Forms 1094-C, one for each of its two operating divisions, Division X and Division Y. (Division X and Division Y are units of the same ALE, thus both report under the same employer identification number (EIN); they are not members of an Aggregated ALE Group.) Attached to one Form 1094-C are Forms 1095-C for the 200 full-time employees of Division X, and attached to the other Form 1094-C are Forms 1095-C for the 1,000 full-time employees of Division Y. One of these Forms 1094-C should be identified as the Authoritative Transmittal on line 19, and should include aggregate employer-level data for all 1,200 full-time employees of Employer B as well as the total number of employees of Employer B, as applicable, as required in Parts II, III, and IV of Form 1094-C. The other Form 1094-C should not be identified as the Authoritative Transmittal on line 19, and should report on line 18 only the number of Forms 1095-C that are attached to that Form 1094-C, and should leave the remaining sections of the form blank, as indicated in the instructions for line 19.
Each ALE must file its own Forms 1094-C and 1095-C under its own separate EIN, even if the ALE is part of an Aggregated ALE Group. No Authoritative Transmittal should be filed for an Aggregated ALE Group.
Example 3: Assume that Employer A from Example 1 is a member of the same Aggregated ALE Group as Employer B from Example 2. Accordingly, Employer A and Employer B are separate ALEs filing under separate EINs. Forms 1094-C should be filed as indicated in Examples 1 and 2. Employer A should include only information about employees of Employer A in its Authoritative Transmittal, and Employer B should include only information about employees of Employer B in its Authoritative Transmittal. No Authoritative Transmittal should be filed for the Aggregated ALE Group reporting combined data for employees of both Employer A and Employer B.
Similar rules apply for a Governmental Unit that has delegated its reporting responsibilities for some of its employees to another Governmental Unit—see Designated Governmental Entity (DGE) in the Definitions section of these instructions for more information. In the case of a Governmental Unit that has delegated its reporting responsibilities for some of its employees, the Governmental Unit must ensure that among the multiple Forms 1094-C filed by or on behalf of the Governmental Unit transmitting Forms 1095-C for the Governmental Unit’s employees, one of the filed Forms 1094-C is designated as the Authoritative Transmittal and reports aggregate employer-level data for the Governmental Unit, as required in Parts II, III, and IV of Form 1094-C.
Example: County is an Aggregated ALE Group made up of the ALE Members School District, the Police District, and the County General Office. The School District designates the state to report on behalf of the teachers and reports for itself for its remaining full-time employees. In this case, either the School District or the state must file an Authoritative Transmittal reporting aggregate employer-level data for the School District.
One Form 1095-C for Each Employee of Applicable Large Employer
For each full-time employee of an ALE, there must be only one Form 1095-C filed for employment with that employer. For example, if an employer separately reports for each of its two divisions, the employer must combine the offer and coverage information for any employee who worked at both divisions during the calendar year so that a single Form 1095-C is filed for the calendar year for that employee, which reports information for all 12 months of the calendar year from that ALE.
In contrast, a full-time employee who works for more than one employer that is a member of the same Aggregated ALE Group must receive a separate Form 1095-C from each ALE. For any calendar month in which a full-time employee works for more than one employer of an Aggregated ALE Group, only one ALE is treated as the employer of that employee for reporting purposes (generally, the ALE for whom the employee worked the greatest number of hours of service), and only that ALE reports for that employee for that calendar month. The other ALE is not required to report for that employee for that calendar month unless the other ALE is otherwise required to file Form 1095-C for that employee because the individual was a full-time employee of that ALE for a different month of the same calendar year. In this case, the individual may be treated as not employed by that ALE for that calendar month. If under these rules, an ALE is not required to report for an employee for any month in the calendar year, the ALE is not required to report for that full-time employee for that calendar year.
Example: Employer A and Employer B are separate ALEs that belong to the same Aggregated ALE Group. Both Employer A and Employer B offer coverage through the AB health plan, which is an insured plan. In January and February, Employee has 130 hours of service for Employer A and no hours of service for Employer B. In March, Employee has 100 hours of service for Employer A and 30 hours of service for Employer B. In April through December, Employee has 130 hours of service for Employer B and no hours of service for Employer A. Employer A is the employer of Employee for filing purposes for January, February, and March. Employer A should file Form 1095-C for Employee reporting offers of coverage using the appropriate code on line 14 for January, February, and March; should complete lines 15 and 16 per the instructions; and should include Employee in the count of total employees and full-time employees reported for those months on Form 1094-C. For the months April through December, on Form 1095-C, Employer A should enter code 1H (no offer of coverage) on line 14, leave line 15 blank, and enter code 2A (not an employee) on line 16 (since Employee is treated as an employee of Employer B and not as an employee of Employer A in those months), and should exclude Employee from the count of total employees and full-time employees reported for those months on Form 1094-C.
When To File
Forms 1094-C and 1095-C must be mailed and postmarked on or before the due date. If the due date falls on a weekend or legal holiday, the due date is the following business day. Both forms must be filed by February 28 if filing paper forms, or March 31 if filing electronically, of the year following the calendar year to which the return relates. For calendar year 2022, Forms 1094-C and 1095-C are required to be filed by February 28, 2023, or March 31, 2023, if filing electronically. See Furnishing Forms 1095-C to Employees for more information.
Extensions
It is possible to get an automatic 30-day extension by completing and submitting Form 8809, Application for Extension of Time to File Information Returns through the online FIRE System either as a fill-in form or an electronic file, or you may submit a paper form. No signature or explanation is required for the extension. However, Form 8809 must be filed on or before the due date of the returns to get the 30-day extension. Under certain hardship conditions, you may apply for an additional 30-day extension. See the Instructions for Form 8809 for more information. As soon as you know that a 30-day extension of time to file is needed, file Form 8809. Mail or fax Form 8809 using the address and phone number listed in the instructions. See Pub. 1220, Part B, for more information on filing online or electronically.
