IRS Extends ALE Reporting Deadlines

The IRS has issued an extension of the Applicable Large Employer (ALE) reporting requirements of the ACA pertaining to offers and elections of qualified health insurance coverage (Notice 2016-4). The original deadline of February 1st, 2016 has been extended for two months. This National Law Review article does a nice job of getting into some of the details.

The reporting requirements that are associated with ObamaCare’s Pay-or-Play rules affects employers with 50 or more Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees. Employers with less than 50 FTE will have this reporting handled by their insurance carriers.

The majority of tax payers will not be affected by this delay in reporting. They will continue to simply ‘check the box’ on their IRS 1040 stating they had qualified coverage for the previous tax year. As this is the first time this reporting has been required most employers were not in a position to adequately handle it and needed more time to comply.