On February 18, 2015 the IRS released Notice 2015-17 that delays some of the tax penalties included in the Affordable Care Act related to businesses that pay for or reimburse certain types of employee medical costs under conditions not allowed by the Affordable Care Act. The notice is important to businesses that paid or reimbursed the cost of individual health insurance in 2014 or those who reimbursed employees for out-of-pocket medical expenses outside of an insurance plan over the past year.
Freedom Benefits previously estimated that more than 1 million small businesses were in violation of one of more provisions of the law and the size of potential excise tax penalties (up to $36
,500 per employee for 2014 alone) was enough to bankrupt many small firms. Under the IRS guidance issued today the application of penalties for small businesses is delayed until June 30, 2015. It is important for small businesses to review and update their non-compliant health plans over the next four months. Freedom Benefits offers a do-it-yourself compliance checklist or a professional review with sample plan documents that are intended to meet the new requirements.
In summary, the tax penalty for past violations in small business employee health plans is gone. Businesses must bring their health plans into compliance by June 30, 2015 in order to avoid tax penalties for 2015 an beyond.