American Health Resources has created a way for small and mid-market employers to replace their group health insurance policies with individual policies.
American
Health Resources (AHR) has launched Personal Benefits Plan, designed to save small
and mid-market employers money and give employees the health insurance policy
that works best for them.
With
the AHR Personal Benefits Plan, the employer gives each employee a “Benefits
Savings Account,” funded by the employer, and lets each employee choose their
own benefits package, including their own health insurance policy.
AHR
claims that many employers have expressed interest in an individual
policy-based benefits plan, but haven’t been able to find one that is compliant
with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The company says its
Personal Benefits Plan puts together the right mix of pre-tax and after-tax
benefits, taking into account employee medical expenses, federal subsidies and
cost sharing that will produce the best result for each individual employee. The
Personal Benefits Plan is fully compliant with Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
regulations and exempt from group health plan rules.
AHR
says the solution saves employers and their employees about 30% in premiums and
out-of-pocket medical expenses, and it is immune to the open enrollment time
frames that typically limit companies to a 30-day window. In addition, each
employee gets help choosing their optimal insurance coverage so they can make
the best decision for themselves and their families.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has set forth Revenue Procedure
2015-47, which supplies guidance for administrators of qualified
retirement plans seeking an exemption from requirements to file electronically certain annual forms. The new
guidance helps clarify how plans can properly request a waiver of the
electronic filing requirement due to economic hardship.
The forms impacted by the revenue procedure are Form
8955-SSA, “Annual Registration Statement Identifying Separated Participants
With Deferred Vested Benefits,” and Form 5500-EZ, “Annual Return of
One-Participant (Owners and Their Spouses) Retirement Plan.” Under the terms of Revenue Procedure 2015-47, certain plan sponsors will be able to continue to file paper versions of these forms, despite other recent rulemaking requiring electronic filing.
But because the Department of the Treasury and the IRS believe
that electronic filing will not impose significant burdens on the taxpayers
covered by the regulations, the IRS Commissioner “anticipates granting waivers
of the electronic filing requirement only in exceptional cases.”
By way of background, Section 6011(e) of the Internal
Revenue Code (IRC) authorizes the IRS to issue regulations that require an
entity to file returns on “magnetic media,” so long as the entity is required
to file at least 250 returns during the calendar year. The term magnetic media
includes electronic filing via the Internet, as well as other forms specifically
permitted under applicable regulations, revenue procedures, publications,
forms, instructions, or other guidance from the IRS.
During September 2014, the Department of the Treasury and the
IRS issued final regulations to require certain plan administrators to file
electronically Form 8955-SSA registration statements and Form 5500 series
returns. Form 5500 series returns include Form 5500, Annual Return/Report of
Employee Benefit Plan, Form 5500-SF, Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small
Employee Benefit Plan, and Form 5500-EZ. Under the electronic filing
regulations, a Form 8955-SSA registration statement must be filed
electronically if the plan administrator is required to file at least 250
returns during the calendar year that includes the first day of the plan year.
Under a related section of the electronic filing
regulations, a Form 5500 series return must be filed electronically if the plan
administrator and the employer maintaining the plan are, in the aggregate,
required to file at least 250 returns during the calendar year that includes the
first day of the plan year. These electronic filing regulations provide that if
a filer is required to file electronically a Form 8955-SSA registration
statement or a Form 5500 series return and fails to do so, the filer is deemed
to have failed to file the registration statement or the return, respectively.
The electronic filing regulations further provide that the
Commissioner of the IRS may waive the electronic filing requirement for a given
plan in cases of undue economic hardship. According to the IRS, the principal
factor in determining economic hardship will be the amount, if any, by which
the cost of filing the registration statement or return electronically exceeds
the cost of filing the registration statement or return on paper or other
media.
NEXT: Other
background requirements
The earlier regulations also provide that a request for a waiver must
be made in accordance with published guidance, and that the waiver will specify
the type of filing and the period to which it applies. The waiver is also
subject to any terms and conditions regarding the method of filing that may be
prescribed by the IRS Commissioner.
The electronic filing requirement under § 301.6057-3 of the
electronic filing regulations applies to Form 8955-SSA registration statements
required to be filed for plan years that begin on or after January 1, 2014, but
only for filings with a filing deadline (not taking into account extensions) on
or after July 31, 2015. Filers of Form 8955-SSA registration statements due on
July 31, 2015, would be eligible for an automatic extension until October 15,
2015, if they filed Form 5558, Application for Extension of Time to File
Certain Employee Plan Returns. The electronic filing requirement under § 301.6058-2 of the
electronic filing regulations applies to Form 5500 series returns required to
be filed for plan years that begin on or after January 1, 2015, but only for
filings with a filing deadline (not taking into account extensions) after
December 31, 2015.
Form 8955-SSA registration statements that are filed
electronically are filed using the Filing Information Returns Electronically
(FIRE) system. Form 5500 series returns that are required to be filed
electronically are generally filed under the Department of Labor’s ERISA Filing
Acceptance System (EFAST2). However, because Form 5500-EZ returns are
paper-only returns that are filed with the IRS, filers of Form 5500-EZ returns
that are required to file electronically must file Form 5500-SF returns using
EFAST2 in lieu of the Form 5500-EZ.
NEXT: Waivers have
limited scope
The IRS stresses that the new guidance under Revenue Procedure 2015-47 does not provide hardship waiver
procedures for any electronic filing requirement for a form that a filer is
already required to file electronically, such as Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF
(which are required to be filed electronically through EFAST2 under a Department
of Labor rule).
Accordingly, the waiver procedures provided for in the new
revenue procedure apply only to Form 8955-SSA and Form 5500-EZ filings. Also,
as previously announced in the preamble to the electronic filing regulations,
the IRS anticipates adding items on the Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF relating
solely to Code requirements and intends to provide an optional paper-only form
containing those Code-related items for use by filers that file fewer than 250
returns during the calendar year.
Filers that are required to electronically file Form 5500
series returns using EFAST2 and that file at least 250 returns during the
calendar year would be required to answer these IRS-only questions electronically
using EFAST2 (even though the Department of Labor rule requiring electronic
filing does not apply to these IRS-only questions). The Department of the
Treasury and the IRS do not believe that answering five these IRS-only questions
electronically would impose any significant burdens because these filers are
already required to electronically file a Form 5500 or Form 5500-SF return
using EFAST2. Accordingly, a waiver of the electronic filing requirement will
not be granted with respect to these questions.
With these limitations in mind, the IRS will approve or deny
a request for a waiver of the electronic filing requirement for Form 8955-SSA
or Form 5500-EZ based on each filer’s particular facts and circumstances. In
the case of a waiver request relating to Form 8955-SSA, the filer must be the
plan administrator required to file Form 8955-SSA under § 6057(a). In the case
of a waiver request relating to Form 5500-EZ, the filer must be either the plan
administrator or the employer that maintains the plan as provided in § 6058(a).
In determining whether to approve or deny a request, the IRS
will consider the filer’s ability to file timely the registration statement or
return electronically without incurring an undue economic hardship. The specific
criteria are described at length in the text of Revenue
Procedure 2015-47.