System Helps Respond to ACA Penalty Letters
When the IRS finds an applicable large employer (ALE) in violation of the ACA’s requirements, the ALE is issued Letter 226-J, which outlines penalties and fines for noncompliance and gives the ALE 30 days to respond. Whether the issue is improper ...
May. 01, 2018
SyncStream Solutions has introduced ACA Audit, the first Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliance tool that helps organizations and their advisors anticipate and respond to IRS audits around ACA reporting. ACA Audit works as an extension of SyncStream’s ACA reporting tools or as a standalone product that analyzes past filings and automates customizable IRS response letters to aid employers as well as brokers, CPAs, attorneys, consultants, and other trusted advisors.
When the IRS finds an applicable large employer (ALE) in violation of the ACA’s requirements, the ALE is issued Letter 226-J, which outlines penalties and fines for noncompliance and gives the ALE 30 days to respond. Whether the issue is improper filing, failing to furnish 1095-C forms to eligible employees, or not offering health care coverage that meets the affordability standard or minimum essential coverage requirements, employers must comb through their data to determine whether they agree or disagree with the penalty and draft a letter in response.
ACA Audit automates that process for employers, HR professionals, brokers, CPAs, attorneys, and consultants for any possible ACA penalties long before they receive Letter 226-J, or when the letter is received and the employer needs to submit a response. Using SyncStream’s proprietary business logic, ACA Audit will analyze and flag any potential liability on each 1095-C form for any filing year, estimate 4980H(a) and 4980H(b) penalties, and produce a comprehensive ACA Liability Assessment Report.
“ACA Audit is the first solution of its kind,” said Arthur Tacchino, Chief Innovation Officer of SyncStream. “It runs a myriad of different logic statements based on our comprehensive knowledge of the health law and its forms to identify vulnerabilities in an employer’s IRS filings. It not only flags blatant errors, but also clerical issues, like missing social security numbers or too many indicator codes on a single form. ACA Audit provides employers with the insight to anticipate any potential violations and prepares them to mitigate any future fines.”
Non-compliance with the ACA can be quite costly for an ALE. For 2015 reporting, an employer could face a monthly fine of $173.33 for each ACA full-time employee that was not offered coverage. If the employer had 100 full-time employees this fine could amount to an annual penalty of $145,598.
ACA Audit is available for both new and existing SyncStream customers. It can be used as a standalone solution that imports filing data, or in conjunction with SyncStream’s other ACA reporting tools, which can pre-populate data into ACA Audit. For more information on ACA Audit, visit https://sync-stream.com/solutions/aca-audit.