Q: I understand we must provide a Form 1095-C for our employees in order to remain in compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). What is the due date for these forms?
It’s been a bit of a moving target for 2017, but the final dates have now been released (IRS Notice 2018-06). Employers who are required to provide Forms 1095-B or 1095-C to employees have been granted a 30-day extension from the original due date of January 31, 2018. The new due date is March 2, 2018.
The deadline for employers to file these forms with the IRS remains unchanged. Submission deadlines are February 28, 2018, for those filing on paper and April 2, 2018, for those filing electronically.
If you are a Savers Admin payroll client and have contracted with us to take care of your filings, your employees can expect to receive their forms at the same time they receive their 2017 W-2s; therefore, all Form 1095s will be delivered by the original January 31, 2018 deadline. And, of course, the IRS forms will be electronically submitted to the IRS in advance of the April 2, 2018 deadline.
If you have not yet contracted with us to take care of your filings and need help with the 2017 forms, don’t hesitate to call or email us for assistance. You do not need to be a payroll client for us to prepare your forms for you.
Not sure if you are required to provide 1095s to your employees and the IRS? Feel free to give us a call and we’ll be happy to help you find out.
Q: I’ve heard that, with the passage of the new tax bill, my employees’ federal tax withholdings will change for 2018. What do I need to do?
On December 22, 2017, the tax reform bill was signed into law. The IRS is in the process of releasing new withholding guidance and the tax team at Asure Software is updating the Evolution payroll software to reflect these changes. Employees will soon begin to see the changes in federal withholding on their pay statements.
Employees do not need to complete a new W-4 in order to receive these changes and Savers Admin payroll clients do not need to take any action to implement the changes in the Evolution payroll system.
Should you or your employees have questions, please contact your payroll processor for assistance. We are here to help!
Q: We have a flexible spending account with Savers Admin, an Asure Software Company. Our new plan began on January 1, 2018, and we have a 75-day grace period for the 2017 plan year. Will you explain how this works?
The grace period is the time in which an employee may continue to incur expenses using their remaining 2017 funds. For example, if an employee still has $700 remaining in their flex account on December 31, 2017, and the employer plan includes the 75-day grace period, the employee may continue to incur expenses through the first 75 days of 2018 and use those remaining funds to pay for them. Once those funds are exhausted the 2018 funds are used.
One easy way to think about it is that the grace period is 75 days during which the 2017 and 2018 plan years overlap each other.
If the employer provides flex cards to their employees for the flex account those cards automatically check for 2017 funds before using any 2018 funds.
If your company has the $500 carryover rule for your plan instead of the 75-day grace period, it works a bit differently. In a nutshell, this option allows the flex participant to carry over up to $500 from one year to the next. Any funds in excess of the $500 are forfeited by the employee. Using the same $700 remaining balance as above, the employee would rollover $500 to use anytime during 2018 but would forfeit $200 on January 1, 2018.
If you need more details on how this option works, we’re here to help.