What it Means: Form 1095-C, Line 14

Hello there! Welcome to ExpressACAForms’s quick little two-part series on two of the more complicated lines of the Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage.

And by “complicated,” we mean it’s the information about your employee that might not be readily available on their W-9. Don't worry: it’s nothing too hard.

Form 1095-C, Line 14
Line 14 is where you indicate to the IRS what sort of coverage you offered to the employee for whom you’re completing the Form 1095-C. You do this using Code Series 1, and each code in the series lets the IRS know if the coverage you offered met minimum essential coverage (MEC), the minimum value (MV), and if the coverage was offered to the spouse and dependent(s), if any.

Tax Year 2016 Code Changes
Of course, since it’s the IRS, things are slightly different for this upcoming year than they were last year. Code Series 1. Code 1I was replaced with code 1J. They also added code 1K to the mix to help indicate more situations regarding your offers of coverage.

Code Series 1
On line 14 of Form 1095-C, you’ll use one code per month (or one code for all 12 months) as it applies to that employee. Here are those codes and what they mean:

• 1A. A Qualifying Offer was made to the employee, spouse, and dependent(s), if any. A Qualifying Offer provides MEC at MV and the Employee Required Contribution is equal to or less than 9.5% (as adjusted) of the mainland single federal poverty line.
• 1B. You offered MEC at MV to the employee only.
• 1C. You offered MEC at MV to the employee and dependent(s) but not the spouse.
• 1D. You offered MEC at MV to the employee and spouse but not dependent(s). BUT if the coverage for the spouse was offered conditionally, use code 1J instead.
• 1E. You offered MEC at MV to the employee, spouse, and dependent(s). BUT if the coverage for the spouse was offered conditionally, use code 1K instead.
• 1F. You offered MEC that did not meet MV to the employee, spouse, dependent(s), or any combination of the three.
• 1G. You offered coverage for at least one month of the calendar year to an individual who was not your employee at all during the year or to an individual who was a part-time employee. Note that code 1G must be used for all 12 months, so go ahead and put it in that “All 12 Months” box on the form.
• 1H. You didn’t offer any coverage to the employee that month.
• 1J. You offered MEC at MV to the employee and conditionally to the spouse but not to the dependent(s).
• 1K. You offered MEC at MV to the employee and dependent(s) and conditionally offered it to the employee’s spouse.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of What it Means with ExpressACAForms! And make sure to follow along for even more ACA and e-filing information.