Managing Complex ACA-related Data
Hello again,
This post is for Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) required to comply with the Affordable Care Act. We hope you find it useful.
Recently, an ACA customer called us requesting help with filing. She received an IRS penalty letter for 2019 and had not filed in previous years.
She purchased our IRS-certified ACA software and took advantage of our IRS-approved proxy submission service for 2019 filing. Our easy-to-use ACA software solution will allow her to file on her own for previous years.
Another company recently contacted us after receiving a penalty notification for failure to file in 2019. We helped them file and set them up with our comprehensive ACA software for future compliance management and reporting.
This company employs a small number of full-time temporary employees with a large number of part-time staff. Our ACA software will help them manage compliance year-round and track which employees are trending towards full-time.
Tracking complex ACA-related data manually may become overwhelming, and our software can help you better manage your employee data. In order to make appropriate offers of coverage determining full-time status is crucial.
Determining FTEs
As an employer, you may have come across the term “full-time equivalent employee.” In the context of the ACA, this factor is easy to underestimate and can unexpectedly influence your company’s status with regards to the ACA and its federally mandated reporting requirements.
Even if the number of full-time employees working at your company is below 50, perhaps giving the impression that the ACA requirements don’t apply, that variable factor of parttime employees’ hours can accumulate high enough during the year to push the number of full time and “full time equivalents” up to and above that all-important 50.
Our IRS-certified ACA software can streamline data management and provides reports indicating when part-time employees are trending towards full-time.
If the company’s status changes and the ACA requirements come into play, certain actions must be taken or the penalties could be serious. Unfortunately for already over-worked HR staff, the factor of part time staffs’ hours can accumulate and, unrecognized or not noticed in the flurry of a busy HR day, become a problem.
For a business with a large number of part-time workers, knowing exactly how to calculate a full-time equivalent (FTE) employee can assist with preventing this situation.
It’s important for a company to know how many full-time employees the part-time workers are equal to. Once that can be determined and managed, it becomes easier to manage and anticipate ACA-related decisions.
Late Filing, Failure to File, Corrections
Filing on-time and correctly is crucial in order to avoid possible ACA penalties. Our friendly experts can answer any ACA-related questions and can help with late filing, failure to file for prior years, and submission corrections.
Electronic ACA filers will receive one of the following responses from the IRS: Accepted, Accepted with Errors, Processing, Not Found, Partially Accepted, or Rejected.
– Processing means your submission is still pending, and you can check back later to see if your submission has been accepted.
– Rejected means there is a problem with the structure of the file or the type of data—for example, an illegal character like a number or symbol in someone’s name.
– Accepted means there were no discrepancies between information on your submitted forms and data in the IRS database.
– Accepted with Errors means there is a discrepancy between data in the IRS database and your submitted forms. The most common error is a Tax Identification Number (SSN) mismatch with an employee’s last name.
– Partially Accepted can only occur in a single transmission for multiple companies. It simply means that one or more company-level submissions were rejected (see above) but that others were accepted.
Any Rejection, Partially Accepted, or Accepted with Errors status will be accompanied by a downloadable Acknowledgement text file which will contain additional details.
Passport Software’s comprehensive ACA software produces all test submission files required for obtaining a Transmitter Control Code (TCC) for companies to submit electronic files themselves. We are also IRS-certified for proxy submission on behalf of our ACA software customers.
If you are paper filing, submission error notifications can be delayed, and you may receive Letter 5699 stating the IRS believes you failed to file or furnish forms 1094-C/1095-C properly. Subsequentially, you could receive Letter 5005-A, the penalty notification sent to ALEs that failed to file and or furnish forms 1094-C and 1095-C as required under IRS sections 6721/6722.
The error corrections process may be complex, and we can help you with ACA submission corrections as well as late or back-filing.
Passport Software
Passport Software has been helping ALEs comply with the ACA since 2015, and our experts provide excellent training and support. If you have questions about our IRS-approved ACA software or services, or about the ACA in general, we can help.
Our comprehensive ACA software helps you streamline compliance management year-round. If you are manually tracking or doing most of the work on behalf of your payroll solution provider, we can help.
Our ACA Full-Service option is the easiest – just provide a spreadsheet with employee data, and we do the rest throughout the year including filing.
We can help with late filing, back-filing, and provide penalty response consultation services that have helped many companies avoid or drastically reduce penalties.
To learn more about our ACA software and services call 800-969-7900. Or, contact us – we are here to help.