The Facts on Obamacare

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, can be pretty overwhelming. And the vast amount of new rules and regulations mean that just about everyone in the US has been affected by it.

Regardless of what happens in the future, Obamacare is still the law of the land, so make sure to keep these facts in mind to stay ACA compliant:

All American Taxpayers Must Get Health Insurance
The individual mandate and employer shared responsibility mandate lay out the rules for how everyone is required to obtain medical insurance that meets minimum essential coverage and how certain applicable large employers (those with 50 or more full-time employees) are now required to provide it to their full-time employees. This minimum essential coverage must also meet a certain minimum value, which is determined based on the federal poverty line each year.

Where You Can Get MEC
In addition to the coverage provided by employers (which is required to meet MEC), the ACA has ensured individuals can find insurance that meets minimum essential coverage through:

• Marketplace coverage,
• Most major medical coverage,
• Medicare, and
• Medicaid.

When You Can Enroll
Barring a job change or other major life change (like moving or getting married), you can only purchase qualifying coverage during open enrollment. Other exceptions to the open enrollment period are Medicaid and CHIP, which you can enroll in based on your income at any point during the year.

The Obamacare Forms
In order to prove coverage was obtained, providers of the insurance must report to the IRS and their employees (or coverage recipients) details of the coverage offered on Forms 1094-B and 1095-B or Forms 1094-C and 1095-C.

And that’s something ExpressACAForms can help with! We help you e-file your ACA Forms with the IRS securely, easily, and quickly. And we can also mail your forms to your recipients for you! Check out our site or give us a call for more information on completing your 2016 ACA return.

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Why Employers Face Affordable Care Act Mandates

The Affordable Care Act employer mandates are not to be trifled with.

While there’s a lot of legal and IRS jargon going on in the ACA, the employer mandates basically boil down to:

1. Applicable Large Employers (ALEs), those with 50 or more full-time employees, must offer full-time employees health insurance or pay a per-employee fine.
2. The health insurance coverage offered by ALEs must meet minimum essential coverage (MEC) at a set minimum value (MV).
3. The health insurance coverage offered by ALEs to full-time employees must also be offered to full-time equivalent employees.
4. The health insurance coverage offered by ALEs must cover the employee’s dependent(s) up to age 26, if applicable.

So what’s the deal? Don’t employers have enough to deal with? Why did the ACA implement these mandates?

Well, believe it or not, one of the main reasons the Affordable Care Act was enacted was to ensure all US taxpayers have access to (ahem) affordable health insurance coverage. And since many employers already provide health benefits to their employees, making it so that the coverage they offer meets certain requirements was one way to get most of America’s taxpayers into the “receives affordable coverage” category.

Lawmakers then added the Affordable Care Act’s safe harbor relief options, which help employers shoulder some of the financial burdens of their new coverage offers.



Stay tuned with ExpressACAForms for more information about the Affordable Care Act and ACA reporting! We’re here to help spread the ACA knowledge and help get your ACA e-filing done. And if you have any questions about either, don’t hesitate to reach out to us! We’re available Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST, by phone (704-954-8420) and live chat and offer 24/7 assistance through support@ExpressACAForms.com.

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Brush Up on Your ACA Knowledge

There’s no better time than the present to brush up on your ACA knowledge. Mostly because, at this present moment, you’ve come across the ExpressACAForms blog on the subject!

Listen, we figure you’re in one of three situations with your ACA filing: 1. You’re done with your 2015 filing and are trying to forget about 2016’s until it’s time to file 2016’s.; 2. You’re still making corrections and trying to complete your 2015 return.; or 3. You’re just blowing it off altogether.

In all of these situations, you stand to benefit from a little ACA know-how. That’s where we come in.

Below are a few tips about ACA filing that you’ll want to keep in mind - yes, even now, in late August. January will be here before we know it, and the filing period for ACA will be shorter than it was this year. So you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared by staying up-to-date on ACA info.

• For starters, to elaborate on our last point there, for the 2015 tax year, the IRS extended the due dates of ACA Forms 1094 and 1095 by two or more months. So far, for the 2016 tax year, they have no plans to do so, so your forms will have to be e-filed by March 31, three months earlier than this past year. Additionally, your recipient copies will need to be sent out by January 31, along with your 1099s and W-2s.
• Applicable Large Employers, those with 50 or more full-time employees, are still required to offer health insurance coverage to those employees. This coverage must meet the minimum essential coverage (MEC) requirements as stated by the ACA, and you’ll have to pay a penalty for each uncovered employee. This penalty is slated to increase each year from here on out, so you may want to set up a plan sooner rather than later.
• If you have more than 250 forms to file, you’re required by the IRS to e-file. You’ll need to make sure you have a system or program in place (like ExpressACAForms!) to handle getting your forms to the IRS.
• If you file late or not at all, the IRS is issuing penalties in the coming year. They were lenient this past year, forgiving late fees for those who could prove they made the effort to file on time. That won’t be their policy anymore, however, as we’re past the first year of filing.

And if you filed with ExpressACAForms last year, the good news is you’re already a few steps ahead! Since our program is online and cloud-based, rather than a software you have to download and update each year, all of your filing information is saved from year to year. So, when it’s time to file again, all you need to do is update any changes from the year and transmit your return. It’s that simple!


As always, if you have any further questions regarding ACA e-filing, feel free to give us a call! We’re in the office Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET, at (704) 839-2270 and on live chat through our website. We also offer 24/7 customer assistance through our email, support@ExpressACAForms.com.

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E-filing Your 1095 Forms with the ACA Experts

Believe it or not, how you e-file your Forms 1094 and 1095 can have a serious effect on the outcome of your ACA return. We’ve already talked about how paper filing just doesn’t measure up to e-filing, so we figure you’re probably here to see why you should e-file with ExpressACAForms rather than any of your other e-filing options. Well look no further, we’re here to tell you:

Ease of Filing
As far as being able to offer e-filing with speed and ease, you won’t find anyone faster or easier than ExpressACAForms. All you have to do is upload the ACA information you already have, and our state-of-the-art system processes and generates your return. Then you review everything and, if it looks good, hit the transmit button. You’d need magic or a time machine to get your paper forms completed that quickly.

TIN Verification and Error Checks
It’s one thing to just create your forms and send them directly to the IRS for you, but ExpressACAForms wanted to do more for you, the filer. That’s why we built in multiple error checks, including a TIN verification, at different steps of the process to ensure your return is sent error-free, saving you time and any potential fees.

Postal Mailing
While we - and the IRS - highly recommend e-filing, there’s one part of your ACA requirement that can’t be sent electronically: your recipient copies. Even if you e-file, the employee or recipient copies of Form 1095 you’re reporting still need to be printed and mailed to the appropriate recipient. At ExpressACAForms, we do that for you. Once you transmit your return, we guarantee we’ll have your recipient copies printed, stamped, and mailed by the next business day.

Meanwhile, Need Any Help?
With ExpressACAForms, you’re never left alone in the dark to figure out your ACA forms. Our expert customer support team is available by phone Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT at (704) 839-2270, and is available by email anytime at support@ExpressACAForms.com.

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E-file Your ACA Return for Just 10¢ a Form

Unless you’ve already filed your Affordable Care Act Forms 1094 and 1095 the old fashioned way by sending in paper forms to the IRS, you’re probably looking for an ACA e-filing service. Something you may experience in this hunt as an ACA filer in 2016, the first year of ACA filing (reporting tax year 2015), is a wide range of costs for seemingly similar e-filing services.

Because ExpressACAForms was created by a team of IRS-authorized e-filing experts, we’re able to offer fast and easy ACA e-filing through the program for a fair, competitive price. At ExpressACAForms, we generate and verify your ACA return at a base price of $499 per EIN and securely e-file the return for just 10 cents a form!

For that price, you have access to all of these amazing ACA services:

• Flexible employer/employee data capture
• Safe and secure ACA data generation
• TIN verification
• Built-in error checks
• Audit assistance
• Printable ACA Form 1094 and 1095 PDFs
• Expert, US-based support

And with ExpressACAForms, there’s a 100% money back guarantee, so there’s no risk to giving it a try.

Questions about getting started? Give us a call Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT at (704) 839-2270, or send us an email anytime to support@ExpressACAForms.com.

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