An Affordable Health Care (ACA) update for 2015

With the Supreme Court ruling on ACA, millions of people will continue to have access to affordable health care in states which had not established marketplace healthcare exchanges.

This year, the individual mandate penalty will increase to the higher of 2% of annual household income or $325 per person, per year, with a maximum per family of $975. At the same time, the federal poverty guidelines which are used to determine if the individual qualifies for a subsidy have increased as well.

For applicable large employers with an average of 50 or more full time equivalent (FTE) employees in the prior year must now offer minimum essential coverage that is affordable to their FTE employees and their dependents. Otherwise, they will be subject to an employer shared responsibility payment.

Also, the forms 1095-B and 1095-C which had been optional in 2014, now become required filing by any company that provides minimum essential coverage to an individual (the 1095-B form) and by applicable large employers (the 1095-C form)

For my individual tax return clients: You will need to watch for these new ACA year end tax documents and be sure to provide them to me just as you would your W-2's and any other year end tax documents you receive.

 Lester R Bahr, CPA