ACA 2015 Guide: Everything you Need to Know When Preparing Business Tax Returns

Some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) apply only to small businesses with more than 50 full-time employees (or equivalents). These employers are not subject to the employer shared responsibility provision and won’t be required to pay a penalty if they don’t provide affordable health coverage. Still, there are several tax provisions under the ACA that your small business clients should take into consideration.

• For businesses that have close to 50 employees, or whose workforce fluctuates throughout the year, it’s important to properly calculate the number of employees. You can view a helpful guide here.
• Employers with fewer than 50 employees can purchase health insurance for its employees through the Small Business Options Program (SHOP). Plus, small businesses that have fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees and average annual wages of less than $50,000 may be eligible for the small business health care tax credit. To qualify, employers should purchase insurance through the SHOP and cover at least 50 percent of their full-time employees’ premium costs.
• Small business employees must withhold and report an additional 0.9 percent on employee wages or compensation that exceed $200,000 – this is known as the Additional Medicare Tax.
• They may be required to report the value of the health insurance coverage on W-2 forms.
• New this year: If the business provided self-insured health coverage to employees in 2015, they must file an annual return reporting certain information for each employee covered. You can view some of the basic information here.

More than 95 percent of employers have fewer than 50 full-time employees and fall into the provisions above. Stay informed with Intuit® Professional Tax Group’s helpful toolkits on the ACA so that you can easily guide your clients through the ACA-related tax changes.

The due date for providing the 2015 Form 1095-B, Health Coverage, and Form 1095-C, Employer Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage, to individuals has been extended from Feb. 1, 2016, to March 31, 2016.