Form 1095-C vs. Form 1095a 2024-2025

Annual Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting deadlines are coming soon. With these deadlines come a lot of questions. I've covered the basics of Form 1095-C in a recent episode of HR FAQ and 2022 updates in a recent episode of HR Party of One, both of which I'll link to in the description. However, there's one question I've been getting a lot that I haven't answered yet: what's the difference between Forms 1095-C and 1094-C? In this episode of HR FAQ, I'll answer that question and also explain how they differ from the other ACA forms, 1095-A, 1095-B, and 1094-B. Let's get started. So, what is Form 1095-C? The federal government uses Form 1095-C to track employers' compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA requires employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees to offer health care coverage to full-time employees or potentially face a fine. These employers are called Applicable Large Employers (ALEs). ALEs must file a 1095-C for every worker employed for any month of the previous calendar year, not just current employees, and furnish each employee with their own copy. Employees do not need their 1095-C copy to file their individual tax return. The form also helps the IRS determine which employees were eligible for subsidies for individual health insurance during the year. Employees who were offered qualified coverage by their employers are not eligible for these subsidies in the months they were offered qualified coverage. Now, what is Form 1094-C? To highlight the difference between them, you can think of Form 1094-C as a cover sheet providing a high-level summary of all employers' 1095-Cs. Unlike 1095-Cs, Form 1094-C is not distributed to employees and requires information such as the number of workers employed and how many 1095-Cs are being filed. Employers must file one Form 1094-C...