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Understand reporting requirements for the Affordable Care Act

by Intuit• Updated 1 month ago

Find out if you need to and how to comply with the Affordable Care Act mandates.

The Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) was first enacted in 2010. Several mandates that affect business owners went into effect in 2015.  

If you’re an Applicable Large Employer (ALE), you need to do the following: 

  • Offer insurance to your qualified full-time employees and their dependents
  • Report the insurance coverage offered (or not offered) to the IRS on Form 1094-C and Form 1095-C 
  • Report employer-sponsored health insurance on your employees’ W-2s 

To learn more about the Affordable Care act:

QuickBooks Online Payroll and QuickBooks Desktop Payroll can help with some of the reporting.

Step 1: Determine your Applicable Large Employer (ALE) status

To determine your ALE status, you need to account for service-hours for your entire workforce, including full-time and part-time employees. Generally, if you have 50 full-time employees, you’re considered an ALE.  You’ll do this each year and will apply to the next year. 

Select your payroll product below to get a report that shows total service-hours for each employee by month.  

Note: Not sure which payroll service you have? Here's how to find your payroll service.
  1. Select Business View, then Reports.
  2. In Find report by name, enter Payroll Summary.
  3. From the Date Range dropdown ▼, select Custom.
  4. Enter a date range that includes pay dates with pay periods spanning an entire month.
    • For example: If pay period 1 runs from 1/1 to 1/15, with a pay date of 1/23, and pay period 2 runs from 1/16 to 1/31, with a pay date of 2/6, to find the total service-hours for January pay periods, use a date range of 1/23 to 2/6.
  5. Select Run report. The Total Hours column shows the total service hours each employee worked in the month, including overtime hours. 
  6. Use the Full-time equivalent (FTE) Employee Calculator to see if your mix of full-time and part-time employees make you an ALE. 
  1. Select Reports, then Employees & Payroll, and select Payroll Summary.
  2. Select a date range that includes pay dates with pay periods spanning an entire month. Then select Refresh.
    • For example: If pay period 1 runs from 1/1 to 1/15, with a pay date of 1/23, and pay period 2 runs from 1/16 to 1/31, with a pay date of 2/6, to find the total service-hours for January pay periods, use a date range of 1/23 to 2/6.
  3. From Columns, select Employees to filter the report to show all employees.
  4. Select Customize Report, and use the options on the Display tab or the Filters tab to customize the report to display only specific info.
  5. To print or save the report, select Print Report or Save as PDF from the File drop-down menu. The Hours column displays the total service-hours each employee worked in the month or date range, including overtime hours.
  6. Use the Full-time equivalent (FTE) Employee Calculator to see if your mix of full-time and part-time employees make you an ALE. 

Step 2: File your Forms 1094-C and 1095-C (if you’re an ALE)

Because of the HR and benefits info needed to complete these forms, we don’t file them for you.  See IRS instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C for info on deadlines and filing the forms. 

You can use the reports from Step 1 and get employee details reports from QuickBooks to help you complete Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. 

  1. Select Business View, then Reports.
  2. In Find report by name, enter Employee Details.
  3. From Share dropdown ▼, select Printer Friendly, or Export to Excel to print or download your report.
  1. Select Reports, then Employees & Payroll, and select Employee Contact List.
  2. Select the Customize Report option.
  3. Select the Display tab.
  4. Select the Column options to include.
  5. Select Ok.

Step 3: Report your employer-sponsored health coverage on Form W-2 

See Report employer health insurance on W-2s.

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