This blog was last updated on June 27, 2021

Have you ever thought about just how much it will cost your organization to comply with mandatory ACA reporting? What will Affordable Care Act reporting cost you in terms of time and impact? Let’s take a minute and break down the economics. The IRS estimates that it will take 12 minutes to fill out each 1095-C return—and this is assuming you know how to fill it out correctly the first time and have all the necessary information immediately at your disposal. As HR Morning and HR benefits Alert points out “…considering this is a brand-new, high-stakes process, it’s likely to take many employers longer than the average amount of time the IRS estimates. Still, the estimate does help give you some type of perspective on the time-commitment necessary for the actual reporting process”. So, think about it. If you have 250 employees, that’s 50 hours to complete just the forms. At 1000 employees, that’s 200 hours just to complete the forms. That’s 5 entire weeks of regular business hours. This does not take into account compiling the information or sending the transmittal to the IRS. It also does not account for any corrections or revisions that may be needed or even calculating who is a full-time or full-time equivalent employee that you need to report to the IRS to see if you qualify as a large employer. This estimate also does not factor in other people double-checking the information, including management, nor does it factor in building an internal solution to fill out the forms, track the process, or transmit properly to the IRS, which involves utilizing your IT department and a very big lift on their part. If you are still looking for a solution to this mandatory ACA tax reporting requirement, there are still options available to meet the deadlines this year. Consider the costs and ask yourself, should you buy or build a solution to comply with this obligation year after year?