Information Reporting by Applicable Large Employers on Health Insurance Coverage Offered Under Employer-Sponsored Plans, 54996-55013 [2013-21791]

Agencies

• Internal Revenue Service
• DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 174 (Monday, September 9, 2013)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 54996-55013]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-21791]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Internal Revenue Service

26 CFR Part 301

[REG-136630-12]
RIN 1545-BL26


Information Reporting by Applicable Large Employers on Health 
Insurance Coverage Offered Under Employer-Sponsored Plans

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking and notice of public hearing.

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SUMMARY: This document contains proposed regulations providing guidance 
to employers that are subject to the information reporting requirements 
under section 6056 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code), enacted by the 
Affordable Care Act. Section 6056 requires those employers to report to 
the IRS information about their compliance with the employer shared 
responsibility provisions of section 4980H of the Code and about the 
health care coverage they have offered employees. Section 6056 also 
requires those employers to furnish related statements to employees so 
that employees may use the statements to help determine whether, for 
each month of the calendar year, they can claim on their tax returns a 
premium tax credit under section 36B of the Code (premium tax credit). 
In addition, that information will be used to administer and ensure 
compliance with the eligibility requirements for the employer shared 
responsibility provisions and the premium tax credit. The proposed 
regulations affect applicable large employers (generally meaning 
employers with 50 or more full-time employees, including full-time 
equivalent employees, in the prior year), employees and other 
individuals.
    This document also provides notice of a public hearing on these 
proposed rules.

DATES: Written or electronic comments must be received by November 8, 
2013. Requests to speak and outlines of topics to be discussed at the 
public hearing scheduled for November 18, 2013, at 10 a.m., must be 
received by November 8, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Send submissions to: CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG-136630-12), Room 
5205, Internal Revenue Service, PO Box 7604, Ben Franklin Station, 
Washington, DC 20044. Submissions may be hand-delivered Monday through 
Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG-
136630-12), Courier's Desk, Internal Revenue Service, 1111 Constitution 
Avenue NW., Washington, DC, or sent electronically, via the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov (IRS REG-136630-12). The 
public hearing will be held in the Auditorium, Internal Revenue 
Building, 1111 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Concerning the proposed regulations, 
Ligeia Donis (202) 927-9639; concerning submission of comments, the 
hearing, and/or to be placed on the building access list to attend the 
hearing, please contact Oluwafunmilayo (Funmi) Taylor at (202) 622-7180 
(not toll-free numbers).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Paperwork Reduction Act

    The collection of information contained in this notice of proposed 
rulemaking has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 
for review in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 
U.S.C. 3507(d)). Comments on the collection of information should be 
sent to the Office of Management and Budget, Attn: Desk Officer for the 
Department of the Treasury, Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs, Washington, DC 20503, with copies to the Internal Revenue 
Service, Attn: IRS Reports Clearance Officer, SE:W:CAR:MP:T:T:SP, 
Washington, DC 20224. Comments on the collection of information should 
be received by November 8, 2013. Comments are specifically requested 
concerning:

[[Page 54997]]

    Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the 
proper performance of the functions of the IRS, including whether the 
information will have practical utility;
    How the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be 
collected may be enhanced;
    How the burden of complying with the proposed collection of 
information may be minimized, including through the application of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology; and
    Estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, 
maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information.
    The collection of information in these proposed regulations is in 
proposed regulation Sec. Sec.  301.6011-9, 301.6056-1, and 301.6056-2. 
This information will be used by the IRS to verify compliance with the 
return and employee statement requirements under section 6056 for 
purposes of section 4980H, and with the eligibility requirements for 
the premium tax credit. This information will be used to determine 
whether the information has been reported and calculated correctly for 
purposes of section 4980H and section 6056, and whether claims for the 
premium tax credit are correct. The likely respondents are employers 
that are applicable large employers, as defined under section 
4980H(c)(2).
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid 
control number assigned by the Office of Management and Budget.
    Books or records relating to a collection of information must be 
retained as long as their contents may become material in the 
administration of any internal revenue law. Generally, tax returns and 
tax return information are confidential, as required by 26 U.S.C. 6103.

Background

    Sections I through V of the preamble (``Background'') describe the 
statutory provisions governing the information reporting requirements, 
as well as related statutory provisions. Sections VI through XIII of 
the preamble (``Explanation of Provisions and Summary of Comments'') 
describe and explain how these regulations propose to implement the 
statutory provisions of section 6056 and include a discussion of a 
variety of potential simplified reporting methods that are under 
consideration. As is typical with regulations on information reporting, 
these proposed regulations refer generally to additional information 
that may be required under the applicable forms and instructions. 
Sections IX.B and C of this preamble set forth the specific data 
elements that Treasury and the IRS anticipate will be included with the 
reporting, including the data elements that Treasury and the IRS 
anticipate will be provided through the use of an indicator code.
    Section 6056 \1\ requires applicable large employers, as defined in 
section 4980H(c)(2), to file returns at the time prescribed by the 
Secretary with respect to each full-time employee and furnish a 
statement to each full-time employee by January 31 of the calendar year 
following the calendar year for which the return must be filed. Section 
6056 specifies certain information that must be reported on the section 
6056 return and related statement, and authorizes the Secretary to 
require additional information and determine the form of the return. 
Section 6056 is effective for periods beginning after December 31, 
2013; however, Notice 2013-45 (2013-31 IRB 116) provides transition 
relief for 2014 from the section 6056 information reporting 
requirements (as well as the section 6055 information reporting 
requirements relating to the section 5000A individual shared 
responsibility provisions and the section 4980H employer shared 
responsibility provisions).
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    \1\ Section 6056 was enacted by section 1514(a) of the Patient 
Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111-148 (124 Stat. 
119 (2010)), amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation 
Act of 2010, Public Law 111-152 (124 Stat. 1029 (2010)), and further 
amended by the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing 
Appropriations Act of 2011, Public Law 112-10 (125 Stat. 38 (2011)) 
(collectively, the Affordable Care Act).
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I. Shared Responsibility for Employers (Section 4980H)

    One of the purposes of section 6056 reporting is to assist with the 
administration of the employer shared responsibility provisions added 
by the Affordable Care Act as section 4980H of the Code. Section 4980H 
imposes an assessable payment on applicable large employers if certain 
requirements relating to the provision of health care coverage to full-
time employees are not met and one or more full-time employees claim a 
premium tax credit. On December 28, 2012, Treasury and the IRS released 
proposed regulations under section 4980H. The proposed regulations 
under section 4980H were published in the Federal Register on January 
2, 2013 (REG-138006-12 [78 FR 218]). Section 4980H is effective for 
months after December 31, 2013; however, Notice 2013-45, issued on July 
9, 2013, provides transition relief for 2014 from the section 4980H 
employer shared responsibility provisions.
    The reporting requirements under section 6056 apply only to 
employers that are subject to section 4980H (which the statute refers 
to as ``applicable large employers''). Section 4980H(c)(2) defines the 
term ``applicable large employer'' as, with respect to a calendar year, 
an employer that employed an average of at least 50 full-time employees 
on business days during the preceding calendar year. Generally, for 
purposes of determining applicable large employer status, a full-time 
employee includes any employee who was employed on average at least 30 
hours of service per week and any full-time equivalents determined 
pursuant to section 4980H(c)(2)(E). All employers treated as a single 
employer under section 414(b), (c), (m), or (o) are treated as one 
employer for purposes of determining applicable large employer status. 
Section 4980H contains rules for determining whether an employer 
qualifies as an applicable large employer, including special rules 
addressing an employer's first year of existence and predecessor and 
successor employers. See section 4980H(c)(2)(C) and proposed Sec.  
54.4980H-2. Proposed regulations under section 4980H provide guidance 
on determining applicable large employer status and determining full-
time employee status, including defining and providing rules for 
calculating hours of service. See proposed Sec. Sec.  54.4980H-1(a)(21) 
(definition of hours of service), 54.4980H-2 (determination of 
applicable large employer status), and 54.4980H-3 (determination of 
full-time employee status).

II. Premium Tax Credit (Section 36B)

    Section 6056 reporting will also be used for the administration of 
the premium tax credit, which was added by the Affordable Care Act as 
section 36B of the Code. Section 36B allows an advanceable and 
refundable premium tax credit to help individuals and families afford 
health insurance coverage purchased through an Affordable Insurance 
Exchange (Exchange). An employee is not eligible for a premium tax 
credit to subsidize the cost of Exchange coverage if the employee is 
offered affordable coverage under an employer-sponsored plan that 
provides minimum value, or if the employee enrolls in an employer-
sponsored plan. For this purpose, an employer-sponsored plan is 
affordable if the employee's required contribution for the lowest-cost 
self-only minimum value coverage offered does not exceed

[[Page 54998]]

9.5% of the employee's household income. Thus, an employee (and in the 
case of an employer-sponsored plan that offers coverage to an 
employee's spouse or dependents, the employee's spouse and dependents) 
who does not accept an offer of affordable minimum value coverage under 
an employer-sponsored plan and who purchase coverage on an Exchange may 
not be eligible for a premium tax credit. Individuals and the IRS will 
use the information on the cost of the lowest-cost employer-sponsored 
self-only coverage that provides minimum value to verify the 
individual's eligibility for the premium tax credit.\2\
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    \2\ In connection with providing advance payment of the premium 
tax credit, the Exchanges will employ a verification process. 
Because the information concerning household income and other 
relevant factors that are known to the individual and the Exchanges 
at that time may differ from the information used to file the tax 
return after the close of the coverage year, an individual who 
receives an advance payment of the premium tax credit will also need 
to calculate the appropriate amount of the credit when filing his or 
her tax return, and the credit may be more or less than the advance 
payment.
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III. Individual Shared Responsibility (Section 5000A)

    In addition, the Affordable Care Act added section 5000A to the 
Code. Section 5000A provides nonexempt individuals with a choice: 
maintain minimum essential coverage for themselves and any nonexempt 
family members, or include an additional payment with their Federal 
income tax return. Section 5000A(f)(1)(B) provides that minimum 
essential coverage includes coverage under an eligible employer-
sponsored plan. Under section 5000A(f)(2), an eligible employer-
sponsored plan is, with respect to an employee, a group health plan or 
group health insurance coverage offered by an employer to the employee 
that is (1) a governmental plan, within the meaning of section 
2791(d)(8) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg-91(d)(8)), 
or (2) any other plan or coverage offered in the small or large group 
market within a State. An eligible employer-sponsored plan also 
includes a grandfathered health plan, as defined in section 
5000A(f)(1)(D), offered in a group market. Group health plans within 
the meaning of section 1301(b)(3) of the Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 
18021(b)(3)) include both insured health plans and self-insured health 
plans. Accordingly, a self-insured group health plan is an eligible 
employer-sponsored plan. See the Questions and Answers on the 
Individual Shared Responsibility Provision available on the IRS Web 
site at www.irs.gov.

IV. Information Reporting by Providers of Coverage (Issuers, Self-
Insuring Employers, and Sponsors of Certain Government-Sponsored 
Programs) (Section 6055)

    The Affordable Care Act also added section 6055 to the Code, 
providing for information reporting for the administration of section 
5000A. The section 6055 reporting requirements are effective for years 
beginning after December 31, 2013; however, Notice 2013-45 provides 
transition relief for 2014 from the section 6055 reporting 
requirements. Section 6055 requires information reporting by any person 
that provides minimum essential coverage to an individual during a 
calendar year, including coverage provided under an eligible employer-
sponsored plan, and the furnishing to taxpayers of a related statement 
covering each individual listed on the section 6055 return. The 
information reported under section 6055 can be used by individuals and 
the IRS to verify the months (if any) in which they were covered by 
minimum essential coverage. Treasury and the IRS are issuing proposed 
regulations under section 6055 (REG-132455-11) concurrently with these 
proposed regulations.

V. Reporting Requirements for Applicable Large Employers (Section 6056)

    Section 6056 directs an applicable large employer (within the 
meaning of section 4980H(c)(2)) to file a return with the IRS that 
reports for each employee who was a full-time employee for one or more 
months during the calendar year certain information described in 
section 6056(b) about the health care coverage the employer offered to 
that employee (or, if applicable, that the employer did not offer 
health care coverage to that employee). Section 6056 also requires such 
employers to furnish by January 31 of the calendar year following the 
calendar year for which the return must be filed a related statement 
described in section 6056(c) to each full-time employee for whom 
information is required to be included on the return.
    Section 6056(b) describes the return required to be filed with the 
IRS under section 6056. It states that a return meets the requirements 
of section 6056 if the return is in such form as the Secretary may 
prescribe and contains (1) the name, date, and employer's employer 
identification number (EIN), (2) a certification as to whether the 
employer offers to its full-time employees (and their dependents) the 
opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage under an eligible 
employer-sponsored plan (as defined in section 5000A(f)(2)), (3) the 
number of full-time employees for each month during the calendar year, 
and (4) the name, address, and taxpayer identification number of each 
full-time employee during the calendar year and the months, if any, 
during which that employee (and any dependents) were covered under any 
such health benefits plans.
    If the applicable large employer certifies that it offered to its 
full-time employees (and their dependents) the opportunity to enroll in 
minimum essential coverage under an eligible employer-sponsored plan 
(as defined in section 5000A(f)(2)), section 6056 specifies that the 
return must also include (1) the length of any waiting period (as 
defined in section 2701(b)(4) of the Public Health Service Act (42 
U.S.C. 300gg(b)(4)) with respect to that coverage,\3\ (2) the months 
during the calendar year for which coverage under the plan was 
available, (3) the monthly premium for the lowest cost option in each 
of the enrollment categories under the plan, and (4) the employer's 
share of the total allowed costs of benefits provided under the plan. 
Section 6056(b)(2)(F) provides that the return must include such other 
information as the Secretary may require. See section IX of this 
preamble for a discussion of the information proposed to be included in 
these proposed regulations as part of the reporting requirements, as 
well as additional information that may be required under the 
applicable forms and instructions, as is typical with regulations on 
information reporting.
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    \3\ While section 6056(b)(2)(C)(i) refers to the term ``waiting 
period'' as defined in section 2701(b)(4) of the PHS Act, amendments 
made by section 1201 of the Affordable Care Act moved this 
definition from section 2701(b)(4) of the PHS Act to section 
2704(b)(4). Separately, section 2708 of the PHS Act prohibits a 
group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group 
health insurance coverage from applying any waiting period that 
exceeds 90 days. The Affordable Care Act adds section 715(a)(1) to 
the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and section 
9815(a)(1) to the Code to incorporate the provisions of part A of 
title XXVII of the PHS Act (specifically, PHS Act sections 2701 
through 2728) into ERISA and the Code, and to make them applicable 
to group health plans and health insurance issuers providing health 
insurance coverage in connection with group health plans.
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    Section 6056(c) requires that every person required to make a 
return under section 6056(a) furnish to each full-time employee whose 
name is required to be set forth in the return a written statement 
showing (1) the name and address of the person required to make that 
return and the phone number of the information contact for that person, 
and (2) the information required to be shown

[[Page 54999]]

on the return with respect to that individual. The written statement 
must be furnished on or before January 31 of the year following the 
calendar year for which the return under section 6056(a) was required 
to be made.
    As discussed in section IX.B of this preamble, the approach 
contemplated by these proposed regulations would give effect to these 
statutory provisions by limiting the information elements listed and 
other information that would be provided annually to those that are 
needed by individual taxpayers to accurately complete their tax returns 
or by the IRS to effectively administer other provisions of the 
Affordable Care Act. Treasury and the IRS seek comments on ways to 
achieve these goals efficiently and effectively.
    Section 6056(d) provides that to the maximum extent feasible, the 
Secretary may permit combined reporting under section 6056, section 
6051 (employers filing and furnishing Forms W-2, Wage and Tax 
Statement, with respect to employees) or section 6055, and in the case 
of an applicable large employer offering health insurance coverage of a 
health insurance issuer, the employer may enter into an agreement with 
the issuer to include information required under section 6056 with the 
return and statement required to be provided by the issuer under 
section 6055.
    Section 6056(e) generally permits governmental units, or any agency 
or instrumentality thereof, to designate a person to comply with the 
section 6056 requirements on behalf of the governmental unit, agency or 
instrumentality.
    Under section 6724(d), as amended by the Affordable Care Act, an 
applicable large employer that fails to comply with the filing and 
statement furnishing requirements of section 6056 may be subject to 
penalties for failure to file a correct information return (section 
6721) and failure to furnish correct payee statements (section 6722). 
However, these penalties may be waived if the failure is due to 
reasonable cause and not to willful neglect (section 6724).
    Notice 2012-32 (2012-20 IRB 910) requested public comments on 
issues to be addressed in regulations under section 6055. Notice 2012-
33 (2012-20 IRB 912) requested public comments on issues to be 
addressed in regulations under section 6056. In developing these 
proposed regulations and the proposed regulations under section 6055, 
including the potential further simplified reporting methods described 
in section XI of this preamble, Treasury and the IRS have considered 
the written comments submitted in response to these notices and other 
written comments received.
    In addition, consistent with Notice 2013-45, Treasury and the IRS 
have engaged in further dialogue with stakeholders in an effort to 
simplify section 6056 and section 6055 reporting consistent with 
effective implementation of the law. This process has included 
discussions with stakeholders representing a wide range of interests to 
assist in the consideration of effective information reporting rules 
that will be as streamlined, simple, and workable as possible. The 
effort to develop these proposed information reporting rules has 
reflected a considered balancing of the importance of (1) providing 
individuals the information to complete their tax returns accurately, 
including with respect to the individual responsibility provisions and 
eligibility for the premium tax credit, (2) minimizing cost and 
administrative tasks for the reporting entities and individuals, and 
(3) providing the IRS with information to use for effective and 
efficient tax administration. As noted elsewhere in this preamble, the 
proposed regulations will be the subject of public comments, including 
comments that are specifically invited regarding particular issues 
identified in the preamble.

Explanation of Provisions and Summary of Comments

VI. Introduction

    The Explanation of Provisions that follows (Sections VII through 
XIII of the preamble) describes the regulatory provisions proposed to 
implement the statutory reporting provisions described in the 
Background portion of the preamble. Specifically, this section includes 
the following:

   Section  Key Terms
        VII
   Section  ALE Member Subject to Section 6056
       VIII  Requirements With Respect to Full-Time
             Employees
Section IX  General Method--Content, Manner, and Timing
             of Information Required to be Reported to
             the IRS and Furnished to Full-Time
             Employees
 Section X  Combined Reporting Under Section 6056 and
             Section 6051 or 6055
Section XI  Potential Simplified Methods for Section
             6056 Information Reporting
   Section  Person Responsible for Section 6056
        XII  Reporting
   Section  Applicability of Information Return
       XIII  Requirements
 

VII. Key Terms

    These proposed regulations under section 6056 use a number of terms 
that are defined in other Code provisions or regulations. For example, 
section 6056(f) provides that any term used in section 6056 that is 
also used in section 4980H shall have the same meaning given to the 
term by section 4980H. Relevant terms include the following:
A. Applicable Large Employer
    The proposed regulations provide that the term applicable large 
employer has the same meaning as in section 4980H(c)(2) and any 
applicable guidance. See proposed Sec.  54.4980H-1(a)(4).
B. ALE Member
    All persons treated as a single employer under section 414(b), (c), 
(m), or (o) are treated as one employer for purposes of determining 
applicable large employer status.\4\ Under the proposed regulations, 
the section 6056 filing and furnishing requirements are applied 
separately to each person comprising the applicable large employer 
consistent with the approach taken in the section 4980H proposed 
regulations (REG-138006-12 [78 FR 218]) with respect to the 
determination of any assessable payment under section 4980H. The person 
or persons that comprise the applicable large employer are referred to 
as ALE members. The proposed regulations define the term ALE member as 
a person that, together with one or more other persons, is treated as a 
single employer that is an applicable large employer. For this purpose, 
if a person, together with one or more other persons, is treated as a 
single employer that is an applicable large employer on any day of a 
calendar month, that person is an ALE member

[[Page 55000]]

for that calendar month. This definition is the same as the definition 
provided in the proposed regulations under section 4980H. See Sec.  
54.4980H-1(a)(5).
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    \4\ As explained in section 1.A.2 of the preamble to the 
proposed regulations under section 4980H (REG-138006-12 [78 FR 
218]), until further guidance is issued, government entities, 
churches, and a convention or association of churches may apply a 
reasonable, good faith interpretation of section 414(b), (c), (m), 
and (o) in determining whether a person or group of persons is an 
applicable large employer and whether a particular entity is an 
applicable large employer member. See proposed Sec.  54.4980H-
1(a)(5).
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C. Dependent
    The proposed regulations provide that the term dependent has the 
same meaning as in section 4980H(a) and (b) and any applicable 
guidance. See proposed Sec.  54.4980H-1(a)(11).
D. Eligible Employer-Sponsored Plan
    The proposed regulations provide that the term eligible employer-
sponsored plan has the same meaning as in section 5000A(f)(2) and any 
applicable guidance.
E. Full-time Employee
    The proposed regulations provide that the term full-time employee 
has the same meaning as in section 4980H(c)(4) and any applicable 
guidance as applied to the determination and calculation of liability 
under section 4980H(a) and (b) with respect to any individual employee. 
See proposed Sec.  54.4980H-1(a)(18).
F. Governmental Unit and Agency or Instrumentality of a Governmental 
Unit
    The proposed regulations define the term governmental unit as the 
government of the United States, any State or political subdivision 
thereof, or any Indian tribal government (as defined in section 
7701(a)(40)) or subdivision of an Indian tribal government (as defined 
in section 7871(d)). The proposed regulations do not define the term 
agency or instrumentality of a governmental unit, but rather reserve on 
the issue.
G. Minimum Essential Coverage
    The proposed regulations provide that the term minimum essential 
coverage has the same meaning as in section 5000A(f)(1) and any 
applicable guidance.
H. Minimum Value
    The proposed regulations provide that the term minimum value has 
the same meaning as in section 36B and any applicable guidance. See 
proposed Sec.  1.36B-6.
I. Person
    The proposed regulations provide that the term person has the same 
meaning as provided in section 7701(a)(1) and the regulations 
thereunder.

VIII. ALE Member Subject to Section 6056 Requirements With Respect to 
Full-Time Employees

    As discussed earlier in section VII.B of this preamble, an ALE 
member is any person that is an applicable large employer or a member 
of an aggregated group (determined under section 414(b), 414(c), 414(m) 
or 414(o)) that is determined to be an applicable large employer. Under 
the proposed regulations, the section 6056 filing and statement 
furnishing requirements apply on a member-by-member basis to each ALE 
member, even though the determination of whether an entity is an 
applicable large employer is made at the aggregated group level. For 
example, if an applicable large employer is comprised of a parent 
corporation and 10 wholly-owned subsidiary corporations, there are 11 
ALE members (the parent corporation and each of the 10 subsidiary 
corporations). Under the proposed regulations, each ALE member with 
full-time employees, rather than the group of entities that comprise 
the applicable large employer, is the entity responsible for filing and 
furnishing statements with respect to its full-time employees under 
section 6056. This is consistent with the manner in which any potential 
assessable payments under section 4980H will be calculated and 
administered.
    Treasury and the IRS understand that ALE members may benefit from 
the assistance of a third party in preparing these returns, for example 
a third-party plan administrator or a related ALE member tasked with 
preparing the returns for all the members of that applicable large 
employer. For a discussion of how these third parties may help an ALE 
member fulfill its reporting obligations, see section XII.C of this 
preamble.
    Whether an employee is a full-time employee is determined under 
section 4980H(c)(4) and any applicable guidance. See proposed 
Sec. Sec.  54.4980H-1(a)(18) and 54.4980H-3. This includes any full-
time employees who may perform services for multiple ALE members within 
the applicable large employer.\5\ Under the proposed regulations, only 
ALE members with full-time employees are subject to the filing and 
statement furnishing requirements of section 6056 (and only with 
respect to their full-time employees).
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    \5\ For example, if an employee performs services for two 
applicable large employer members within an applicable large 
employer and the combined hours of service for the two applicable 
large employer members are sufficient to trigger a reporting 
obligation under section 6056, each applicable large employer member 
is required to file and furnish a section 6056 return with respect 
to services performed by the employee for that applicable large 
employer member. See proposed Sec.  54.4980H-5(d).
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    Generally, the ALE member providing the section 6056 reporting is 
the common law employer. Disregarded entities are treated for section 
4980H purposes, and therefore for section 6056 purposes, similarly to 
the way they are treated for employment tax purposes, so that the 
reporting requirements under section 6056 are imposed on a disregarded 
entity that is an applicable large employer, and not on its owner.\6\
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    \6\ Specifically, the proposed regulations under section 7701 
(REG-138006-12 [78 FR 218]) treat the disregarded entity (as defined 
in Sec.  301.7701-2) as a corporation with respect to the reporting 
requirements under section 6056. See proposed Sec.  301.7701-
2(c)(2)(v)(A)(5). These rules would also apply to a qualified 
subchapter S subsidiary. See proposed Sec.  1.1361-4(a)(8)(i)(E).
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IX. General Method--Content, Manner, and Timing of Information Required 
to be Reported to the IRS and Furnished to Full-Time Employees

    This section describes the general method for reporting to the IRS 
and furnishing statements to employees pursuant to section 6056 that is 
set forth in the proposed regulations. This general method would be 
available for all employers and with respect to reporting for all 
employees. Treasury and the IRS are also considering certain simplified 
reporting methods, such as using codes on Form W-2 to report whether 
full-time employees, spouses, and their dependents have been offered 
coverage, which in some cases may be available only with respect to 
certain groups of employees. In those cases, with respect to those 
employees for whom the simplified reporting method was not available, 
the employer would use the general method. In any case, however, the 
simplified reporting methods under consideration would be optional so 
that an employer could choose to report for all of its full-time 
employees using the general method described in these proposed 
regulations even if a simplified reporting method is available. For a 
further description of the simplified reporting methods under 
consideration, see section XI of this preamble.
A. Information Reporting to the IRS
    In accordance with section 6056, the proposed regulations provide 
for every ALE member to file a section 6056 return with respect to its 
full-time employees. Similar to the separate Form W-2, Wage and Tax 
Statement, filed by an employer for each employee and the Form W-3, 
Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements, filed as a transmittal form for 
the Forms W-2, the proposed regulations provide that a separate return 
is required for each full-time employee, accompanied by a single

[[Page 55001]]

transmittal form for all of the returns filed for a given calendar 
year.
    As a general method, the proposed regulations further provide that 
the section 6056 return may be made by filing Form 1094-C (a 
transmittal) and Form 1095-C (an employee statement), or other forms 
the IRS designates. Alternatively, the section 6056 return may be made 
by filing other form(s) designated by the IRS or a substitute form. 
Under the proposed regulations, a substitute form must include all of 
the information required to be reported on Forms 1094-C and 1095-C or 
other forms the IRS designates and comply with applicable revenue 
procedures or other published guidance relating to substitute returns. 
See Sec.  601.601(d)(2). In accordance with usual procedures, these 
forms will be made available in draft form at a later date.
B. Information Required To Be Reported and Furnished
    The proposed regulations provide that every ALE member will report 
on the section 6056 information return the following information: (1) 
The name, address, and employer identification number of the ALE 
member, the name and telephone number of the applicable large 
employer's contact person, and the calendar year for which the 
information is reported; (2) a certification as to whether the ALE 
member offered to its full-time employees (and their dependents) the 
opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage under an eligible 
employer-sponsored plan (as defined in section 5000A(f)(2)), by 
calendar month; (3) the number of full-time employees for each month 
during the calendar year; (4) for each full-time employee, the months 
during the calendar year for which coverage under the plan was 
available; (5) for each full-time employee, the employee's share of the 
lowest cost monthly premium (self-only) for coverage providing minimum 
value offered to that full-time employee under an eligible employer-
sponsored plan, by calendar month; and (6) the name, address, and 
taxpayer identification number of each full-time employee during the 
calendar year and the months, if any, during which the employee was 
covered under an eligible employer-sponsored plan. In addition, the 
proposed regulations provide, as with other information reporting, that 
the section 6056 information return may request such other information 
as the Secretary may prescribe or as may be required by the form or 
instructions.
    As part of the effort to minimize the cost and administrative steps 
associated with the reporting requirements, Treasury and the IRS have 
sought to identify any information that would not be relevant to 
individual taxpayers or the IRS for purposes of administering the 
premium tax credit and employer shared responsibility provisions or 
that is already provided at the same time through other means. 
Specifically, the proposed regulations do not require the reporting of 
the following four data elements (a more detailed description of the 
data elements that Treasury and the IRS anticipate will be included is 
provided later in this section of the preamble).
    First, the proposed regulations do not require the reporting of the 
length of any waiting period, because the length of the waiting period 
is not relevant for administration of the premium tax credit or 
employer shared responsibility provisions or for an individual in 
preparing his or her tax return. However, Treasury and the IRS 
anticipate that information will be requested, using an indicator code, 
regarding whether an employee's coverage was not effective during 
certain months because of a waiting period since this information is 
relevant to the administration of the employer shared responsibility 
provisions.
    Second, the proposed regulations do not require reporting of the 
employer's share of the total allowed costs of benefits provided under 
the plan because this information also is not relevant to the 
administration of the premium tax credit and the employer shared 
responsibility provisions. In contrast, whether the employer-sponsored 
plan provides minimum value coverage is relevant information; 
accordingly, Treasury and the IRS anticipate that information will be 
requested, also using an indicator code.
    Third, the proposed regulations do not require the reporting of the 
monthly premium for the lowest-cost option in each of the enrollment 
categories (such as self-only coverage or family coverage) under the 
plan. Rather, because only the lowest-cost option of self-only coverage 
offered under any of the enrollment categories for which the employee 
is eligible is relevant to the determination of whether coverage is 
affordable (and thus to the administration of the premium tax credit 
and employer shared responsibility provisions), that is the only cost 
information proposed to be requested.
    Fourth, the proposed regulations do not require the reporting of 
the months, if any, during which any of the employee's dependents were 
covered under the plan. Instead, the proposed regulations require 
reporting only regarding whether the employee was covered under a plan. 
This is because information relating to the months during which any of 
the employee's dependents were covered under the plan will be reported 
on the section 6055 information return associated with that employee's 
coverage.
    Under the proposed regulations, each ALE member must file and 
furnish the section 6056 return and employee statement using its EIN. 
Any ALE member that does not have an EIN may easily apply for one 
online, by telephone, fax, or mail. See Publication 1635, Employer 
Identification Number, for further information at www.irs.gov.
    Having considered the information required by section 6056 and the 
information needed to verify employer-sponsored coverage and to 
administer the employer shared responsibility provisions under section 
4980H and the premium tax credit, Treasury and the IRS anticipate that 
as part of the general method for section 6056 reporting, the IRS will 
need certain information not specifically set forth under section 6056 
but authorized under section 6056(b)(2)(F). Accordingly, the proposed 
regulations provide, in a manner similar to other information reporting 
guidance, that additional information may be prescribed by guidance, 
forms, or instructions. Treasury and the IRS are also considering 
potential simplified reporting methods that in certain situations may 
permit an employer to provide less information than all data elements 
required under the general method for reporting. See section XI of this 
preamble.
    Under the general method of section 6056 reporting, the following 
information is expected to be requested, through the use of indicator 
codes for some information, as part of the section 6056 return (as well 
as an indication of how many individual employee statements are being 
submitted):
    (1) Information as to whether the coverage offered to employees and 
their dependents under an employer-sponsored plan meets minimum value 
and whether the employee had the opportunity to enroll his or her 
spouse in the coverage;
    (2) the total number of employees, by calendar month;
    (3) whether an employee's effective date of coverage was affected 
by a waiting period;
    (4) if the ALE member was not conducting business during any 
particular month, by month;
    (5) if the ALE member expects that it will not be an ALE member the 
following year;
    (6) information regarding whether the ALE member is a person that 
is a

[[Page 55002]]

member of an aggregated group, determined under section 414(b), 414(c), 
414(m), or 414(o), and, if applicable, the name and EIN of each 
employer member of the aggregated group constituting the applicable 
large employer on any day of the calendar year for which the 
information is reported;
    (7) if an appropriately designated entity is reporting on behalf of 
an ALE member that is a governmental unit or any agency or 
instrumentality thereof for purposes of section 6056, the name, 
address, and identification number of the appropriately designated 
person;
    (8) if an ALE member is a contributing employer to a multiemployer 
plan, whether a full-time employee is treated as eligible to 
participate in a multiemployer plan due to the employer's contributions 
to the multiemployer plan; and
    (9) if the administrator of a multiemployer plan is reporting on 
behalf of the ALE member with respect to the ALE member's full-time 
employees who are eligible for coverage under the multiemployer plan, 
the name, address, and identification number of the administrator of 
the multiemployer plan (in addition to the name, address, and EIN of 
the ALE member already required under the proposed regulations).
C. Use of Indicator Codes To Provide Information With Respect to a 
Particular Full-Time Employee
    In an effort to simplify and streamline the section 6056 reporting 
process even under the general section 6056 reporting rules, Treasury 
and the IRS anticipate that certain of the information described above 
as applied to a particular full-time employee will be reported to the 
IRS, and furnished to the full-time employee, through the use of a code 
rather than by providing specific or detailed information. 
Specifically, it is contemplated that the following information will be 
reported with respect to each full-time employee for each calendar 
month using a code: \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \7\ Treasury and the IRS have received comments regarding 
whether transition relief previously provided in the section 4980H 
proposed regulations (REG-138006-12 [78 FR 218]) with respect to the 
transition from 2013 to 2014 will be extended to the transition from 
2014 to 2015. The issue is currently under consideration and will be 
addressed in future guidance under section 4980H. If further 
transition relief is provided under section 4980H, it is expected 
that additional indicator codes will be available on the section 
6056 return to indicate that an employer is using the transition 
relief.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    (1) minimum essential coverage meeting minimum value was offered 
to:
    a. the employee only;
    b. the employee and the employee's dependents only;
    c. the employee and the employee's spouse only; or
    d. the employee, the employee's spouse and dependents;
    (2) coverage was not offered to the employee and:
    a. the employee was in a waiting period that complies with the 
requirements of PHS Act section 2708 and its implementing regulations;
    b. the employee was not a full-time employee;
    c. the employee was not employed by the ALE member during that 
month; or
    d. no other code or exception applies;
    (3) coverage was offered to the employee for the month although the 
employee was not a full-time employee during that month; and
    (4) the ALE member met one of the affordability safe harbors under 
proposed Sec.  54.4980H-5(e)(2) with respect to the employee.
    It is anticipated that if multiple codes apply with respect to a 
full-time employee for a particular calendar month, the reporting 
format will accommodate the necessary codes.
D. Section 6056 Statements to Full-Time Employees
    Under the general section 6056 reporting rules set forth in the 
proposed regulations, every ALE member required to file a section 6056 
return must furnish a section 6056 employee statement to each of its 
full-time employees that includes the name, address and EIN of the ALE 
member and the information required to be shown on the section 6056 
return with respect to the full-time employee. The section 6056 
employee statement is not required to include a copy of the transmittal 
form that accompanies the returns. As part of the potential simplified 
reporting methods Treasury and the IRS are also considering whether, in 
certain circumstances, other methods of furnishing information to an 
employee may be sufficient (for example, through the use of a code on 
the Form W-2). For a detailed description of these potential simplified 
reporting methods, see section XI of this preamble.
    Some employers may wish to have the flexibility to use a substitute 
type of statement to provide the necessary information to full-time 
employees. The proposed regulations provide that the section 6056 
employee statement may be made by furnishing a copy of the section 6056 
return on Form 1095-C (or another form the IRS designates) or a 
substitute employee statement for that full-time employee. Under the 
proposed regulations, a substitute statement must include the 
information required to be shown on the section 6056 return filed with 
the IRS with respect to that employee and must comply with applicable 
revenue procedures or other published guidance relating to substitute 
statements. See Sec.  601.601(d)(2). These proposed regulations provide 
that section 6056 employee statements filed using Form 1095-C or 
another form the IRS designates will be included in the proposed IRS 
truncated TIN program. Under this proposed program, an IRS truncated 
taxpayer identifying number may be used as the identifying number for 
an individual in lieu of the identifying number appearing on the 
corresponding information return filed with the IRS. See the proposed 
regulations on IRS Truncated Taxpayer Identification Numbers (REG-
148873-09 [78 FR 913]).
E. Time for Filing Section 6056 Returns and Furnishing Employee 
Statements
    The proposed regulations provide that section 6056 returns must be 
filed with the IRS annually, no later than February 28 (March 31 if 
filed electronically) of the year immediately following the calendar 
year to which the return relates. This is the same filing schedule 
applicable to other information returns with which employers are 
familiar such as Forms W-2 and 1099. Because Notice 2013-45 provided 
transition relief for section 6056 reporting for 2014, the first 
section 6056 returns required to be filed are for the 2015 calendar 
year and must be filed no later than March 1, 2016 (February 28, 2016, 
being a Sunday), or March 31, 2016, if filed electronically. In 
addition, the regulations propose that the section 6056 employee 
statements be furnished annually to full-time employees on or before 
January 31 of the year immediately following the calendar year to which 
the employee statements relate. This means that the first section 6056 
employee statements (meaning the statements for 2015) must be furnished 
no later than February 1, 2016 (January 31, 2016, being a Sunday).
    In preparation for the application of the section 4980H provisions 
beginning in 2015, employers are encouraged to voluntarily comply for 
2014 (that is, for section 6056 returns and statements filed and 
furnished in 2015) with the information reporting provisions (once the 
information reporting rules have been issued) and to maintain or expand 
health coverage in 2014. Real-world testing of reporting systems and 
plan designs through voluntary compliance for 2014 will contribute to a 
smoother transition to full implementation for 2015.

[[Page 55003]]

    Some commenters asked for use of an alternate filing date for 
employers whose health plan is not a calendar year plan. While Treasury 
and the IRS understand that employers may collect information on a plan 
year basis, employees generally will need to receive their section 6056 
employee statements early in the calendar year in order to have the 
requisite information to correctly and completely file their income tax 
returns reflecting any available premium tax credit. For this reason, 
the proposed regulations do not adopt this suggestion. However, 
Treasury and the IRS are considering a simplified reporting method, 
described in section XI of this preamble, that in certain circumstances 
could permit the employer to report the required information on the 
Form W-2 which is already being furnished to an employee on the same 
schedule.
    These proposed regulations do not include rules regarding 
extensions of the time to file section 6056 returns but this topic is 
addressed elsewhere. Specifically, the notice of proposed rulemaking 
under section 6055 (REG-132455-11) includes proposed amendments to the 
regulations under section 6081 relating to general rules on extensions 
of time to file to include returns under both sections 6055 and 6056. 
The final section 6056 regulations are expected to cross-reference the 
amendments to the regulations under section 6081. These proposed 
regulations reserve a paragraph for this cross-reference.
F. Manner of Filing of Section 6056 Information Returns and Furnishing 
of Section 6056 Employee Statements
    Treasury and the IRS understand that electronic filing is often 
easier and more efficient for taxpayers, and several commenters 
requested that employers be permitted to file section 6056 returns 
electronically. The proposed regulations require electronic filing of 
section 6056 information returns except for an ALE member filing fewer 
than 250 returns during the calendar year. Each section 6056 return for 
a full-time employee is a separate return. Although an ALE member 
filing fewer than 250 returns during the calendar year may always 
choose to make the section 6056 returns on the prescribed paper form, 
that member is permitted (and encouraged) to file section 6056 returns 
electronically. This proposed requirement for electronic filing is the 
same as the current requirements for other information returns.
    The proposed regulations provide that all returns are aggregated 
for the purpose of applying the 250-return threshold so that, for 
example, an ALE member required to file 150 section 6056 returns and 
200 Forms W-2 will be required to electronically file section 6056 
returns. A reporting entity must submit the prescribed form(s) to 
request authorization and obtain a Transmitter Control Code from the 
IRS to be able to file an information return electronically.
    In addition to electronic filing, Treasury and the IRS understand 
that electronic methods are often a simpler and more efficient method 
to supply employees with the required information, and several 
commenters requested that employers be permitted to electronically 
furnish section 6056 employee statements to full-time employees. In 
response, the proposed regulations permit electronic furnishing of 
section 6056 employee statements if certain notice, consent, and 
hardware or software requirements are met. To provide rules for 
electronic furnishing with which employers are already familiar, the 
proposed regulations adopt by analogy the process currently in place 
for the electronic furnishing of employee statements (that is, Forms W-
2) pursuant to section 6051 and applicable regulations.

X. Combined Reporting Under Section 6056 and Section 6051 or 6055

    In addition to the reporting under section 6056, two other 
reporting provisions provide for annual reporting with respect to 
certain individuals and the furnishing of statements to those 
individuals. Specifically, section 6051 requires employers to provide 
Forms W-2 reporting wages paid and taxes withheld. Section 6055 
requires information reporting by any person that provides minimum 
essential coverage to an individual. ALE members that provide minimum 
essential coverage on a self-insured basis are subject to the reporting 
requirements of all three sections (6051, 6055 and 6056). Notices 2012-
32 and 2012-33 requested comments on how to minimize duplication in 
reporting under these provisions.
    Several commenters recommended that the regulations allow combined 
information reporting under sections 6055 and 6056 for applicable large 
employers that sponsor self-insured plans and must report under both 
sections. Other commenters recommended that employers be permitted to 
use a single information return to report under sections 6051 (Form W-
2) and 6055. Some commenters suggested adding section 6055 or section 
6056 reporting to Form W-2.
    Because not all employers are subject to each of these three 
reporting requirements, independent reporting methods under each 
section need to be available; otherwise, employers subject to only one 
reporting requirement may have to expend additional effort to use a 
combined reporting method. Optional combined reporting therefore would 
require development of multiple forms for each reporting requirement 
(some forms for combined reporting, other forms for separate 
reporting), which could create administrative complexity and create 
confusion for employees.
    In addition, any consideration of combined reporting must take into 
account that sections 6051, 6055 and 6056 apply to different types of 
entities (subject to the various reporting requirements, which differ 
among the Code provisions), and require reporting of different types of 
information. Section 6051 requires reporting of certain wage and wage-
related information on an annual basis by all employers for all 
employees (and only employees). Section 6055 requires reporting of 
certain health coverage information by various entities (issuers, 
employers sponsoring self-insured group health plans, and governmental 
units) only for individuals who are actually covered (and not for 
individuals who are offered coverage but do not enroll), and multiple 
covered individuals may be included on one return. Section 6056 
requires reporting of information by applicable large employers on 
offers of coverage that have or have not been made only to full-time 
employees (whether or not the offer has been accepted). Further, unlike 
Form W-2 reporting under section 6051, which provides annual 
information, both sections 6055 and 6056 require reporting some 
information on a monthly basis. Accordingly, the general section 6056 
reporting method under the proposed regulations does not assume overall 
combined reporting under sections 6051, 6055, and 6056.
    However, as described more fully below in section XI of this 
preamble, Treasury and the IRS are considering whether it may be 
possible to permit a type of combined reporting under sections 6051 and 
6056 by providing an option to use a code on the Form W-2 in certain 
circumstances to provide information needed by both the employee and 
the IRS rather than through the use of the section 6056 employee 
statement (with employer-level information being provided separately). 
In addition, in other limited circumstances involving no-cost or very 
low-cost coverage provided under a self-insured group health plan, 
Treasury and

[[Page 55004]]

the IRS are considering whether the employee and the IRS could rely 
solely on the information provided by the employer on a section 6055 
return and the Form W-2 without any further information reporting under 
section 6056. For further discussion of these potential approaches, see 
section XI of this preamble.
    In response to comments, Treasury and the IRS also have considered 
suggestions to use, for section 6055 and 6056 reporting purposes, 
information that employers communicate to employees about employer-
sponsored coverage prior to employees' potential enrollment in Exchange 
coverage. These comments have observed that, under the Affordable Care 
Act, employers are required to provide pre-enrollment information to 
employees by various means, including information in the Notice of 
Coverage Options provided to employees pursuant to the requirements 
under section 18B of the Fair Labor Standards Act \8\ in the Exchanges 
and potentially via the Employer Coverage Tool developed by the 
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that supports the 
application for enrollment in a qualified health plan and insurance 
affordability programs.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \8\ On May 8, 2013, the Department of Labor issued Technical 
Release 2013-02 providing temporary guidance under Fair Labor 
Standards Act section 18B, as well as model notices. See Technical 
Release 2013-02, model notice for employers who offer a health plan 
to some or all employees, and model notice for employers who do not 
offer a health plan, available at https://www.dol.gov/ebsa/healthreform/. Guidance on the Notice to Employees of Coverage.
    \9\ Available at https://www.healthcare.gov/downloads/ECT_Application_508_130615.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Treasury and the IRS have considered and coordinated with the 
Departments of HHS and Labor regarding the various reporting provisions 
with a view to identifying ways to make the entire process as effective 
and efficient as possible for all parties. That said, the various 
reports are designed for different purposes, and pre-enrollment 
reporting regarding anticipated employer coverage in an upcoming 
coverage year is unlikely to be helpful to individual taxpayers in 
accurately completing their tax returns more than a year later, after 
the coverage year. Among other issues, the pre-enrollment information 
may not be readily available to individuals at the time they are filing 
their tax returns, could be confused with the more recently received 
pre-enrollment information that applies to the subsequent year (not the 
year for which the tax return is being filed), and is in a format that 
does not facilitate easy transfer to the appropriate location on the 
Federal income tax return. Notwithstanding these challenges, Treasury 
and the IRS continue to work with the other Departments and 
stakeholders to consider approaches that might help minimize cost and 
administrative complexity and realize efficiencies in the reporting 
process.
    Both sections 6055 and 6056 require employers to furnish to 
employees information about health care coverage. Solely for the 
purpose of furnishing information to employees (as opposed to filing 
with the IRS), Treasury and the IRS are considering whether employers 
sponsoring self-insured group health plans could fulfill their 
obligation to furnish an employee statement under both sections 6055 
and 6056 through the use of a single substitute statement, within the 
parameters of the rules provided in revenue procedures or other 
published guidance relating to substitute returns. See Sec.  
601.601(d)(2) of this chapter.

XI. Potential Simplified Methods for Section 6056 Information Reporting

    In developing these regulations, Treasury and the IRS have sought 
to develop simplified reporting methods that will minimize the cost and 
administrative tasks for employers, consistent with the statutory 
requirements to file an information return and furnish an employee 
statement to each full-time employee. Comments have suggested that, at 
least for some employers, the collection, assembling and processing of 
the necessary data into an appropriate format for filing may not be 
necessary if the employer offers sufficient coverage to make it 
unlikely that the employer will be subject to an assessable payment 
under section 4980H because the employee will be ineligible for a 
premium tax credit. Treasury and the IRS have considered these comments 
in formulating the potential simplified reporting methods described in 
this section. If Treasury and the IRS adopt one or more of these 
simplified reporting methods, they would be optional alternatives to 
the general reporting method set forth in the proposed regulations, 
which could substantially reduce the data elements reported using the 
general method. It is anticipated that, if an employer uses one or more 
of the simplified reporting methods, the employer would indicate on its 
section 6056 transmittal which simplified reporting method(s) was used 
and the number of employees for which the particular method was used. 
Comments are invited on these potential simplified reporting methods 
and on other possible simplified approaches that would benefit 
employers while providing sufficient and timely information to 
individual taxpayers and the IRS.
    The information provided to the IRS and the employee pursuant to 
section 6056 is important for administering the section 4980H shared 
employer responsibility provisions and the premium tax credit. However, 
in looking at the potential flow of information, Treasury and the IRS 
have determined that in some circumstances only some of the information 
required under the general method is necessary. Treasury and the IRS 
have attempted to identify the specific groups of employees for whom 
simplified reporting would provide sufficient information, and 
simplified reporting approaches for these groups are outlined below. In 
many situations, not every full-time employee of an employer would fit 
into the groups of employees for which simplified reporting would be 
available. In that case, the employer would continue to use the general 
reporting method in the proposed regulations for those full-time 
employees for whom the employers could not use a simplified method. 
However, it is anticipated that a significant number of employers will 
have a sufficient number of employees that fit into one or more of the 
categories described below to make use of the simplified reporting 
method preferable to the general reporting method.
    Subsections A through F of this section XI of the preamble 
describe, and comments are invited on, possible simplified methods of 
reporting under section 6056. Each of these possible methods would be 
optional for the reporting employer, and, except where specifically 
noted, would not affect any reporting obligations under section 6055.

Subsection A................  Eliminating Section 6056 Employee
                               Statements in Favor of Form W-2 Reporting
                               for Certain Groups of Employees Offered
                               Coverage.
Subsection B................   No Need to Determine Full-Time Employees
                               If Minimum Value Coverage Is Offered to
                               All Potentially Full-Time Employees.

[[Page 55005]]

 
Subsection C................  Self-Insured Employers Offering Employees,
                               Their Spouses and Dependents Mandatory No-
                               Cost Minimum Value Coverage.
Subsection D................  Voluntarily Reporting Section 6056
                               Elements During or Prior to the Year of
                               Coverage.
Subsection E................   Reporting for Employees Potentially
                               Ineligible for the Premium Tax Credit.
Subsection F................   Combinations of Simplified Reporting
                               Methods.
 

A. Eliminating Section 6056 Employee Statements in Favor of Form W-2 
Reporting for Certain Groups of Employees Offered Coverage
    In response to stakeholder comments, Treasury and the IRS are 
considering allowing employers in certain circumstances to report 
offers of minimum value coverage on an employee's Form W-2, instead of 
reporting the offers to the IRS on a section 6056 employee statement or 
furnishing a section 6056 employee statement to the employee. The 
reporting is envisioned as using an existing box on the Form W-2 to 
provide the monthly dollar amount of the required employee contribution 
for the lowest cost minimum value self-only coverage offered to the 
employee and using a letter code to describe the offer of coverage. 
Specifically, Treasury and the IRS anticipate that this approach could 
be used for any employee employed by the employer for the entire 
calendar year when the offer, the individuals to whom the offer is 
made, and the employee contribution for the lowest-cost option for 
self-only coverage all remained the same for all twelve months of the 
calendar year. The letter code could be used to indicate that minimum 
value coverage was offered to: (1) The employee, the employee's spouse 
and the employee's dependents, (2) the employee and the employee's 
dependents but not the employee's spouse; (3) the employee and the 
employee's spouse but not the employee's dependents; (4) the employee, 
but not the employee's spouse or the employee's dependents; or that the 
employee was (5) only offered coverage that was not minimum value 
coverage; or (6) not offered coverage. For this purpose, an employer is 
treated as offering coverage to the employee's spouse or dependents 
even if the employee does not have a spouse or dependent, if the 
employee could elect such coverage if the employee did have a spouse or 
dependent. If an employee was not offered coverage, it is anticipated 
that the dollar amount of the employee share of the lowest-cost 
employee-only coverage option would be shown as zero.

    Example: Employer has 100 full-time employees, all of whom are 
employed for the entire year. Employer offers all of its full-time 
employees, spouses and dependents the opportunity to enroll in 
health care coverage that provides minimum value. Under the 
potential simplified reporting method, it is contemplated that, for 
all employees, Employer would be permitted to avoid filing or 
furnishing section 6056 employee statements if it used a letter code 
on the Form W-2 to report that an offer of coverage had been made to 
the employee, the employee's spouse (if any), and the employee's 
dependents (if any), and a dollar amount indicating the required 
monthly employee contribution to purchase the lowest cost option 
offered to the employee for self-only coverage.

    Treasury and the IRS are also considering whether this or a similar 
simplified reporting method could be extended to cases in which the 
required monthly employee contribution is below a specified threshold. 
For example, if the annual employee cost of self-only coverage is $800 
or less, the employer would be permitted to report zero as the employee 
cost. The $800 amount is less than 9.5 percent of the federal poverty 
line for a single individual. Thus, regardless of the size of the 
employee's household or the level of other income or loss of any member 
of the employee's household, either the employer's coverage will be 
affordable for purposes of section 36B(c)(2)(C)(i) or the employee's 
household income will be less than 100 percent of the federal poverty 
line and the employee will not be an applicable taxpayer under section 
36B(c)(2) who is eligible for the credit. In addition, even if other 
income increases the employee's household income, the employee would 
not be entitled to the affordability exemption to the shared 
responsibility payment under section 5000A(e)(1) because the $800 
amount would not exceed 8 percent of the employee's household income. 
Alternatively, if other losses reduce the employee's household income 
below the income tax filing threshold, the employee will qualify for 
the exemption under section 5000A(e)(2), and the information otherwise 
reported under section 6056 would not be required to determine whether 
the employee satisfied section 5000A. Comments are also requested on 
the extent to which this approach could reasonably be combined with the 
other simplified reporting methods described in this section XI of the 
preamble.
    An employer that decides to use this simplified reporting method 
would not be required to file or furnish a section 6056 employee 
statement with respect to the employees for whom this method was used. 
Instead, the employer would simply indicate on a section 6056 
transmittal that it had chosen to use this method. If the Form W-2 for 
an employee used an EIN other than the employer's EIN (for example, a 
third-party payor treated as an employer under section 3401(d)(1) of 
the Code filed the Form W-2), the employer (that is, the ALE member) 
may be required as part of the 6056 transmittal to identify those 
employees for whom a third party reported on Form W-2 without the 
employer's EIN and to list the employees' social security numbers.
    Stakeholders have inquired whether a similar optional Form W-2 
reporting method could be used for employees offered coverage under 
their employer's plan for less than a full calendar year (for example 
for a new employee hired during the year), but offered no coverage for 
the remainder of the year. Treasury and the IRS note that this type of 
reporting would leave gaps in information that would otherwise be used 
for tax administration purposes. For example, the reporting would not 
provide any information regarding the particular calendar months during 
which coverage was offered (or not offered). Even if the employer 
represented that the coverage was offered during all periods of 
employment, the reporting would not be able to be reconciled, for 
example, with another Form W-2 received by the employee from another 
employer using the same reporting method. That is because while both 
employers would report the number of months coverage was offered, that 
information would not be sufficient to determine whether offers of 
coverage were overlapping (because the employee was employed 
simultaneously at both employers).
    Additionally, for months for which coverage was not offered, 
information as to whether the employee was employed and also the reason 
coverage was not offered during certain months of the calendar year 
would not be captured (for example, the employee was in a waiting 
period or employed but not as a full-time employee). The specific 
reason coverage was not offered is relevant to the administration of 
the employer shared responsibility provisions since the failure to 
offer coverage for certain reasons does not result in an assessable 
payment under

[[Page 55006]]

the employer shared responsibility provisions for a calendar month, 
even if the full-time employee receives a premium tax credit for that 
month. Comments are requested on whether this approach to reporting 
would be useful for employers and, if so, on possible ways to address 
issues concerning the information gaps that would exist in reporting on 
employees offered coverage for less than a full calendar year.
B. No Need To Determine Full-Time Employees If Minimum Value Coverage 
Is Offered to All Potentially Full-Time Employees
    Treasury and the IRS understand that some employers offer coverage 
to all or nearly all of their employees, and are able to accurately 
represent that the only employees not offered coverage are not full-
time employees. In that case, the employer will have determined that it 
would not owe an assessable payment under section 4980H(a) because it 
would have made an offer of coverage to all of its full-time employees. 
However, the employer might not have determined whether every employee 
to whom coverage is offered is or is not a full-time employee. Treasury 
and the IRS are considering whether these employers may provide section 
6056 reporting that does not identify the number of full-time employees 
and that does not specify whether a particular employee offered 
coverage is a full-time employee, provided that the employer certifies 
that all of its employees to whom it did not offer coverage during the 
calendar year were not full-time employees (or were otherwise 
ineligible for coverage, for example because they were in the initial 
permitted waiting period following the date of hire). This method would 
permit the employer to forgo identifying the full-time status of its 
employees prior to filing a section 6056 return. However, if an 
employee who was offered coverage claimed a premium tax credit, the 
employer could be asked to confirm at a later date (after the filing of 
the section 6056 return and the relevant Form 1040 return) whether that 
employee was a full-time employee during that calendar year (in the 
same manner that an employer reporting only on behalf of full-time 
employees might later be asked about the status of an employee claiming 
the premium tax credit if the employee was not listed on that 
employer's section 6056 return). Treasury and the IRS recognize that 
this method often would result in over-reporting of certain elements in 
the sense that reporting would occur with respect to one or more 
employees who may not be full-time employees during the calendar year. 
But some employers have indicated that they anticipate relatively few 
of their employees will claim the premium tax credit, and that 
determining those few employees' status as full-time employees later 
would be administratively easier than determining the full-time 
employee status of all employees at the time of the initial filing.

    Example: Employer has 100 employees. Employer makes an offer of 
minimum value coverage to 90 of the employees. Employer has 
determined that the ten employees to whom coverage is not offered 
are not full-time employees for any calendar month during the year. 
Employer has not determined which of the remaining 90 employees were 
full-time employees for one or more calendar months during the year. 
Employer certifies as part of its section 6056 transmittal return 
that the only employees to whom it did not offer coverage were not 
full-time employees or were otherwise not required to be offered 
coverage for all months of employment (for example, a full-time 
employee was hired in November and, under the terms of the plan, 
which comply with the Affordable Care Act, would not be initially 
offered coverage until the following calendar year). Employer would 
file a section 6056 return and furnish an employee statement for 
each of the 90 employees, but would not be required to report either 
the total number of full-time employees for the year or whether any 
particular employee was a full-time employee for any calendar month 
during the year. If one of the employees included as part of the 
return declined the offer of coverage and properly claimed a premium 
tax credit with respect to coverage provided through an Exchange, 
and the employer were contacted by the IRS to determine whether the 
employer did or did not owe an assessable payment under section 
4980H(b), the employer could determine at that point whether the 
employee was a full-time employee for one or more months during that 
calendar year and supply that information to the IRS.
C. Self-Insured Employers Offering Employees, Their Spouses, and 
Dependents Mandatory No-Cost Minimum Value Coverage
    Some employers may provide mandatory minimum value coverage under a 
self-insured group health plan to an employee, an employee's spouse, 
and an employee's dependents, with no employee contribution. In that 
case, none of those individuals would be eligible for a premium tax 
credit for any month during which the coverage was provided, and the 
employer would indicate on the return required under section 6055 for 
the employee all months for which that coverage was provided with 
respect to each individual in the employee's family. Because the 
section 6055 return would provide the individual taxpayers the 
necessary information to accurately file the taxpayers' income tax 
returns, and would provide the IRS the information concerning those 
employees to administer the premium tax credit and employer shared 
responsibility provisions, Treasury and the IRS are considering whether 
for those employees the employer could file and furnish only the return 
required under section 6055, a code on the Form W-2, the summary 
information provided in the section 6056 transmittal form, and no 
further information reporting under section 6056.
D. Voluntarily Reporting Section 6056 Elements During or Prior to the 
Year of Coverage
    Some employers have expressed an interest in voluntarily reporting 
information about the coverage they offer their employees prior to the 
end of a coverage year, for example at their open enrollment or before 
the open enrollment at the Exchanges, on the theory that earlier 
section 6056 reporting to the IRS could lead to greater efficiency in 
the employer verification system employed by Exchanges to determine 
eligibility for premium tax credits. Under such an arrangement, they 
believe that if some employers chose to provide part of their section 
6056 reporting to the IRS earlier in the process, the IRS, in turn, 
would be able to transmit any pertinent data to the Exchanges.
    A proposal of this kind would need to address a number of issues. 
First, the regulations under section 6103 do not authorize the IRS to 
share taxpayer information in this manner. Even if this information 
sharing were permitted, information reporting plays a role in enabling 
individuals to file complete and accurate tax returns. Under the 
proposal, individuals would not receive the information for their tax 
return preparation proximate to when they are completing their tax 
returns. Employees may bear less burden and prepare more accurate tax 
returns when their employer furnishes a statement at the start of the 
relevant tax season reflecting all the information the employee needs 
to file a correct tax return for the prior year. Gaps in complete and 
timely information increase the need for additional follow-up 
communication among employers, employees, and the IRS.
    Also, offering two sets of reporting alternatives with filing 
occurring at different time periods would present challenges. Because 
the reporting options would be voluntary, different reporting protocols 
and regimes would need to be established and would need

[[Page 55007]]

to accommodate employer choices to change the method of reporting from 
year to year. The multiple forms, procedures, and protocols could 
create complexity and be difficult to administer.
    In addition, the information about the offer of coverage made 
before the year starts may change during the calendar year. For 
example, during the year, an employee may be hired or may terminate 
employment, a part-time employee may become full-time and be eligible 
for different coverage options, or an employee may change positions 
during the year and no longer be offered coverage. Accordingly, 
disclosure before the coverage year does not adequately substitute for 
disclosure to employees and reporting to the IRS after the coverage 
year.
    Employers, employees, and the IRS share the goal of aligning 
eligibility for advance payments of premium tax credits as closely as 
possible with eligibility for the premium tax credit on the employee's 
annual tax return filed after the coverage year. This would reduce 
confusion and minimize the risk of employees owing advance payments 
back as liabilities on their tax returns. Regardless of the final rules 
on section 6056 information reporting, employers are encouraged to make 
their pre-enrollment disclosures to employees and Exchanges as 
effective and helpful to individuals as possible.
    Comments are invited on whether there could be a way to design such 
a voluntary partial early reporting arrangement that would reduce 
complexity and avoid confusion for employers and employees, be 
administrable for the IRS, and provide timely information to 
individuals so that they can meet their income tax filing obligation 
without undue burden or undue risk of inaccuracy.
E. Reporting for Employees Potentially Ineligible for the Premium Tax 
Credit
    Some employers have indicated that, because many of their employees 
are relatively highly paid, they are unlikely to be eligible for a 
premium tax credit. The assumption is that the employee's household 
income is likely to exceed 400 percent of the Federal poverty line, and 
therefore the employee would not benefit from receiving the information 
otherwise included with a section 6056 employee statement. Further, 
because the employee is unlikely to qualify for a premium tax credit, 
employers have stated that the information will not be useful to the 
IRS in administering the employer shared responsibility provisions 
because the precondition of a section 4980H(b) assessable payment--that 
the employee receive a premium tax credit--is unlikely to be satisfied.
    Treasury and the IRS have considered this request and welcome 
comments both on its potential usefulness to employers and its 
administrability. Employers would still need to report to the IRS the 
months during which the employee was a full-time employee, at least to 
the extent the employee being was included in a full-time employee 
count. Additionally, employers will not be in a position to know the 
correlation between an employee's Form W-2 wages and household income 
with sufficient accuracy to determine whether an employee may be 
eligible for the premium tax credit. The only pertinent information the 
employer retains is the employee's annual wages, yet the poverty level 
from which the premium tax credit income threshold is determined varies 
considerably based on family size (which employers will not necessarily 
know). In addition, employees for whom an employer may use an 
affordability safe harbor based on wages for purposes of compliance 
with the employer shared responsibility provisions under section 4980H 
might still be eligible for a premium tax credit based on their 
household income. Employers generally do not know employees' household 
income, and will not have information as to whether the employee (or 
another member of the employee's household) has incurred losses or 
expenses (such as alimony, casualty losses, Schedule C business 
deductions, and the like) that reduce the employee's household modified 
adjusted gross income below 400 percent of the Federal poverty line. 
Accordingly, it is unclear whether Form W-2 wages alone would provide 
sufficient information to determine eligibility for the premium tax 
credit because the employee's household income may be well below the 
employee's Form W-2 wages. Comments are requested as to whether there 
is a level of Form W-2 wages at which such a determination might be 
made with sufficient confidence, and whether that level of wages is so 
high as not to be of practical use to employers.
F. Combinations of Simplified Reporting Methods
    The potential simplified reporting methods described above would 
apply to particular groups of employees that in many cases would not 
overlap. In such cases, two different potential simplified reporting 
methods could not be applied to the same employee. Treasury and the IRS 
anticipate that, to the extent any of these potential reporting methods 
are adopted in final regulations or other administrative guidance, 
including forms and instructions, an employer would be permitted to use 
different simplified methods for different employees at the employer's 
election.

XII. Person Responsible for Section 6056 Reporting

    Under the proposed regulations, in general, each ALE member must 
file a section 6056 return with respect to its full-time employees for 
a calendar year.
A. Special Rules for Governmental Units: Designation
    In accordance with section 6056(e), the proposed regulations 
provide that in the case of any ALE member that is a governmental unit 
or any agency or instrumentality thereof (together referred to in this 
preamble as a governmental unit), that governmental unit may report 
under section 6056 on its own behalf or may appropriately designate 
another person or persons to report on its behalf.\10\ For purposes of 
designation, another person is appropriately designated for purposes of 
the filing and furnishing requirements of section 6056 if that other 
person is part of or related to the same governmental unit as the ALE 
member. For example, a political subdivision of a state may designate 
the state, another political subdivision of the state, or an agency or 
instrumentality of the foregoing as the designated person for purposes 
of section 6056 reporting. The person designated might be the 
governmental unit that operates the relevant health plan or the 
governmental unit that does other information reporting on behalf of 
the designating governmental unit. Further, the governmental unit may 
designate more than one governmental unit to file and furnish under 
section 6056 on its behalf, such as, for example, if different 
categories of employees are offered coverage under different health 
plans operated by different governmental units. In addition, a 
governmental unit may designate another person to file and furnish with 
respect to all or some of its full-time employees. If the designation 
is accepted by the designee and is made before the filing deadline, the 
designated governmental unit is the designated entity responsible for 
section 6056 reporting.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \10\ Until further guidance is issued, government entities, 
churches, and a convention or association of churches may apply a 
reasonable, good faith interpretation of section 414(b), (c), (m), 
and (o) in determining whether a person or group of persons is an 
applicable large employer.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[Page 55008]]

    The person (or persons) appropriately designated for this purpose 
would report under section 6056 on behalf of the ALE member. 
Accordingly, the person (or persons) appropriately designated is (are) 
the person(s) responsible for section 6056 reporting on behalf of the 
ALE member and subject to the penalties for failure to comply with 
information return requirements under sections 6721 and 6722. However, 
the ALE member remains subject to the requirements of section 4980H.
    Under the proposed regulations, a separate section 6056 return and 
transmittal must be filed for each ALE member for which the 
appropriately designated person is reporting. The designated entity 
must report its name, address, and EIN on the section 6056 return to 
indicate it is the appropriately designated person.
    The proposed regulations further provide that the designation under 
section 6056(e) must be in writing and must contain certain language. 
Specifically, under the proposed regulations, the designation must be 
signed by both the ALE member and the designated person, and must be 
effective under all applicable laws. The proposed regulations also 
require that the designation set forth the name and EIN of the 
designated person, and appoint that person as the person responsible 
for reporting under section 6056 on behalf of the ALE member. The 
designation must contain information identifying the category of full-
time employees (which may be full-time employees eligible for a 
specified health plan, or in a particular job category, provided that 
the specific employees covered by the designation can be identified) 
for which the designated person is responsible for reporting under 
section 6056 on behalf of the ALE member. If the designated person is 
responsible for reporting under section 6056 for all full-time 
employees of an ALE member, the designation should so indicate.
    The designation must also contain language that the designated 
person agrees that it is the appropriately designated person under 
section 6056(e), and an acknowledgement that the designated person is 
responsible for reporting under section 6056 on behalf of the ALE 
member and subject to the requirements of section 6056, and the 
information reporting penalty provisions of sections 6721 and 6722. The 
designation must also set forth the name and EIN of the ALE member, 
identifying the ALE member as the person subject to the requirements of 
section 4980H. The proposed regulations provide that an equivalent 
applicable statutory or regulatory designation containing similar 
language will be treated as a written designation for purposes of 
section 6056(e).
B. ALE Members Participating in Multiemployer Plans
    Several commenters suggested that administrators of multiemployer 
plans may be willing to file section 6056 returns reporting information 
for coverage offered to full-time employees under the multiemployer 
plan and recommended in such cases that an ALE member not be required 
to report coverage information for those employees.
    Treasury and the IRS understand that the plan administrator of a 
multiemployer plan may have better access than a participating employer 
to certain information on participating employees required to be 
included as part of section 6056 reporting. For this reason, Treasury 
and the IRS anticipate that the section 6056 reporting with respect to 
full-time employees eligible to participate in a multiemployer plan 
will be permitted to be provided in a bifurcated manner. Under the 
bifurcated approach, one return would pertain to the full-time 
employees eligible to participate in the multiemployer plan (or, if the 
employer participates in more than one multiemployer plan, one return 
for each relevant multiemployer plan in which full-time employees are 
eligible to participate), and another return would pertain to the 
remaining full-time employees (those who are not eligible to 
participate in a multiemployer plan). As in the case of other third 
parties, as discussed in section XII.C of this preamble, the 
administrator (or administrators, in the case of an employer 
contributing to two or more multiemployer plans) of a multiemployer 
plan is permitted to report on behalf of an ALE member that is a 
contributing employer, and is permitted to report with respect to the 
ALE member's full-time employees who are eligible for coverage under 
the multiemployer plan (but not with respect to any other full-time 
employees of the ALE member). The administrator of the multiemployer 
plan would file a separate section 6056 return for any ALE member that 
is a contributing employer on behalf of whom it files using the ALE 
member's EIN. The administrator of the multiemployer plan would also 
provide its own name, address, and identification number (in addition 
to the name, address, and EIN of the ALE member already required). The 
ALE member would remain the responsible person under section 6056 with 
respect to all of its full-time employees and accordingly would be 
required to sign the section 6056 return filed on its behalf and be 
subject to any potential liability for failure to properly file returns 
or furnish statements. To the extent the plan administrator that 
prepares returns or statements required under section 6056 is a tax 
return preparer, it will be subject to the requirements generally 
applicable to return preparers.
C. Section 6056 Reporting Facilitated by Third Parties
    Treasury and the IRS understand that third party administrators or 
other third party service providers are integral to the operation of 
many employers' health plans, including with respect to compliance with 
any reporting requirements. As requested by several commenters, ALE 
members are permitted to contract with and use third parties to 
facilitate filing returns and furnishing employee statements to comply 
with section 6056. The proposed regulations make clear, however, that 
ALE members are responsible for reporting under section 6056, with the 
exception of certain governmental unit applicable large employers that 
properly designate under section 6056(e). While the proposed 
regulations do not provide guidance on contractual or other reporting 
arrangements between private ALE members and other parties, they do not 
prohibit these arrangements. Such contractual arrangements would not 
transfer the potential liability of the ALE member for failure to 
report and furnish under section 6056 and the regulations, or the ALE 
member's potential liability under section 4980H.
    As one example, an applicable large employer that is a member of an 
aggregated group of related entities (determined under section 414(b), 
414(c), 414(m) or 414(o)), may file returns and furnish employee 
statements on behalf of one or more of the other ALE members of the 
aggregated group. Each other ALE member of the group, for example, 
could have the ALE member that operates the employer-sponsored plan 
file section 6056 returns and furnish section 6056 employee statements 
on its behalf. However, a separate section 6056 return must be filed 
for each ALE member, providing that ALE member's EIN. Each ALE member 
in the aggregated group would continue to be the responsible person 
under section 6056, would be required to sign the return filed on its 
behalf, and would be subject to any potential liability for failure to 
properly file returns or furnish statements. To the extent the other 
party

[[Page 55009]]

that prepares returns or statements required under section 6056 is a 
tax return preparer, it will be subject to the requirements generally 
applicable to return preparers.

XIII. Applicability of Information Return Requirements

    The proposed regulations provide that an ALE member that fails to 
comply with the section 6056 information return and employee statement 
requirements may be subject to the general reporting penalty provisions 
under sections 6721 (failure to file correct information returns), and 
6722 (failure to furnish correct payee statement). The proposed 
regulations also provide, however, that the waiver of penalty and 
special rules under section 6724 and the applicable regulations, 
including abatement of information return penalties for reasonable 
cause, apply. The proposed regulations under section 6055 (REG-132455-
11) include proposed amendments to the regulations under sections 6721 
and 6722 to include returns under both sections 6055 and 6056 in the 
definitions of information return and payee statement. Treasury and the 
IRS anticipate that the final regulations under section 6056 will 
cross-reference those amendments to the regulations under sections 6721 
and 6722.

Proposed Effective/Applicability Dates

    These regulations are proposed to be effective the date the final 
regulations are published in the Federal Register. These regulations 
are proposed to apply for calendar years beginning after December 31, 
2014. Consistent with Notice 2013-45, reporting entities will not be 
subject to penalties for failure to comply with the section 6506 
information reporting provisions for 2014 (including the furnishing of 
employee statements in 2015). Accordingly, a reporting entity will not 
be subject to penalties if it first reports beginning in 2016 for 2015 
(including the furnishing of employee statements). Taxpayers are 
encouraged, however, to voluntarily comply with section 6056 
information reporting for 2014 by using the general reporting method 
set forth in these regulations once finalized.

Special Analyses

    It has been determined that this notice of proposed rulemaking is 
not a significant regulatory action as defined in Executive Order 
12866, as supplemented by Executive Order 13563. Therefore, a 
regulatory assessment is not required. It has also been determined that 
section 553(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 5) 
does not apply to these regulations.
    It is hereby certified that these regulations will not have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. 
This certification is based on the fact that the regulations are 
consistent with the requirements imposed by section 6056. Consistent 
with the statute, the regulations require applicable large employers, 
as defined in section 4980H(c)(2), to file a return with the IRS, using 
either the prescribed form or a substitute form, for each full-time 
employee reporting certain information regarding the health care 
coverage offered and provided to the employee for the year. Consistent 
with the statute, the proposed regulations further require applicable 
large employers to furnish to each full-time employee a copy of the 
return, or a substitute statement, required to be filed by the 
applicable large employer with respect to the employee. Accordingly, 
these regulations merely prescribe the method of filing and furnishing 
returns and employee statements as required under section 6056. 
Moreover, the proposed regulations attempt to minimize the burden 
associated with this collection of information by requiring that 
applicable large employers file and furnish only information that the 
IRS will utilize to administer the shared employer responsibility 
provisions under section 4980H and administer the premium tax credit 
under section 36B, and information employees will need in order to 
complete their tax returns.
    Based on these facts, a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis under the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 6) is not required.
    Pursuant to section 7805(f) of the Code, this notice of proposed 
rulemaking has been submitted to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the 
Small Business Administration for comment on its impact on small 
business.

Comments and a Public Hearing

    Before these proposed regulations are adopted as final regulations, 
consideration will be given to any written comments (a signed original 
and eight (8) copies) or electronic comments that are submitted timely 
to the IRS as prescribed in this preamble under the ADDRESSES heading. 
Treasury and the IRS specifically request comments on the clarity of 
the proposed rules and how they can be made easier to understand. All 
comments will be available for public inspection at www.regulations.gov 
or upon request. A public hearing has been scheduled for November 18, 
2013, in the Auditorium, Internal Revenue Building, 1111 Constitution 
Avenue NW., Washington, DC. Due to building security procedures, 
visitors must enter at the Constitution Avenue entrance. In addition, 
all visitors must present photo identification to enter the building. 
Because of access restrictions, visitors will not be admitted beyond 
the immediate entrance area more than 30 minutes before the hearing 
starts. For information about having your name placed on the building 
access list to attend the hearing, see the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section of this preamble.
    The rules of 26 CFR 601.601(a)(3) apply to the hearing. Persons who 
wish to present oral comments at the hearing must submit written or 
electronic comments by November 8, 2013 and an outline of the topics to 
be discussed and the time to be devoted to each topic (signed original 
and eight (8) copies) by November 8, 2013.
    A period of 10 minutes will be allotted to each person for making 
comments. An agenda showing the scheduling of the speakers will be 
prepared after the deadline for receiving outlines has passed. Copies 
of the agenda will be available free of charge at the hearing.

Drafting Information

    The principal author of these proposed regulations is Ligeia M. 
Donis of the Office of the Division Counsel/Associate Chief Counsel 
(Tax Exempt and Government Entities). However, other personnel from the 
IRS and Treasury participated in their development.

List of Subjects in 26 CFR Part 301

    Employment taxes, Estate taxes, Excise taxes, Gift taxes, Income 
taxes, Penalties, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

Proposed Amendments to the Regulations

    Accordingly, 26 CFR part 301 is proposed to be amended as follows:

PART 301--PROCEDURE AND ADMINISTRATION

0
Paragraph 1. The authority citation for part 301 continues to read in 
part as follows:

    Authority: 26 U.S.C. 7805 * * *

0
Par. 2. Section 301.6011-9 is added to read as follows:

[[Page 55010]]

Sec.  301.6011-9  Electronic filing of section 6056 returns.

    (a) Returns required under section 6056. An applicable large 
employer member, as defined in Sec.  301.6056-1(b)(2), is required to 
file electronically an information return under section 6056 and Sec.  
301.6056-1, except as otherwise provided in paragraph (b) of this 
section.
    (b) Exceptions--(1) Low-volume filers/250-return threshold--(i) In 
general. An applicable large employer member will not be required to 
file electronically the section 6056 information return described in 
paragraph (a) of this section unless it is required to file 250 or more 
returns during the calendar year. Each section 6056 information return 
for a full-time employee is a separate return. For purposes of this 
section, an applicable large employer member is required to file at 
least 250 returns if, during the calendar year, the applicable large 
employer member is required to file at least 250 returns of any type, 
including information returns (for example, Forms W-2, Forms 1099), 
income tax returns, employment tax returns, and excise tax returns. An 
applicable large employer member filing fewer than 250 returns during 
the calendar year may make the returns on the prescribed paper form.
    (ii) Examples. The following examples illustrate the provisions of 
paragraph (b)(1) of this section:

    Example 1. Company X is an applicable large employer member. For 
the calendar year ending December 31, 2015, Company X is required to 
file 275 section 6056 returns. Company X is required to file section 
6056 returns electronically for that calendar year because 275 
section 6056 information returns exceed the 250-return threshold.

    Example 2. Company Y is an applicable large employer member. For 
the calendar year ending December 31, 2015, Company Y is required to 
file 200 returns on Form W-2 and 150 section 6056 returns. Company Y 
is required to file the section 6056 returns electronically for that 
calendar year because it is required to file more than 250 returns 
(that is, the 200 Forms W-2 plus the 150 section 6056 returns).

    (2) Waiver--(i) In general. The Commissioner may waive the 
requirements of this section if hardship is shown in a request for 
waiver filed in accordance with this paragraph (b)(2)(i). The principal 
factor in determining hardship will be the amount, if any, by which the 
cost of filing the section 6056 returns in accordance with this section 
exceeds the costs of filing the returns on other media. A request for 
waiver must be made in accordance with applicable revenue procedures or 
publications (see Sec.  601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter). Pursuant 
to these procedures, a request for waiver should be filed at least 45 
days before the due date of the section 6056 return in order for the 
IRS to have adequate time to respond to the request for waiver. The 
waiver will specify the type of information return (that is, section 
6056 information return) and the period to which it applies and will be 
subject to such terms and conditions regarding the method of reporting 
as may be prescribed by the Commissioner.
    (ii) Supplemental rules. The Commissioner may prescribe rules that 
supplement the provisions of paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section.
    (c) Effective/applicability date. The rules of this section are 
effective as of the date of publication of the Treasury decision 
adopting these rules as final regulations in the Federal Register. This 
section applies to returns on ``Form 1095-C'' or another form the IRS 
designates required to be filed after December 31, 2014. However, 
reporting entities will not be subject to penalties under sections 6721 
or 6722 with respect to the reporting requirements for 2014 (for 
information returns filed and for statements furnished to employees in 
2015).
0
Par. 3. Section 301.6056-1 is added to read as follows:


Sec.  301.6056-1  Rules relating to reporting by applicable large 
employers on health insurance coverage offered under employer-sponsored 
plans.

    (a) In general. Section 6056 requires an applicable large employer 
subject to the requirements of section 4980H to report certain health 
insurance coverage information to the Internal Revenue Service, and to 
furnish certain related employee statements to its full-time employees. 
Paragraph (b) of this section contains definitions for purposes of this 
section. Paragraph (c) of this section prescribes general rules for 
filing the required information with the IRS and furnishing the 
required employee statements to employees. Paragraphs (d) and (e) of 
this section describe the information required to be reported on a 
section 6056 information return and the time and place for filing. 
Paragraph (f) of this section sets forth the mandatory electronic 
filing requirements for applicable large employer members. Paragraph 
(g) of this section provides information about the statement required 
to be furnished to a full-time employee. Paragraph (h) of this section 
prescribes the time and manner of furnishing the statement, including 
extensions of time to furnish. Paragraph (i) of this section prescribes 
the method for correcting information included in a statement required 
by section 6056(d) that has been furnished to an employee. Paragraph 
(j) of this section describes the information return requirements 
applicable to section 6056 returns. Paragraph (k) of this section 
describes special rules for certain applicable large employers.
    (b) Definitions--(1) Applicable large employer. The term applicable 
large employer has the same meaning as in section 4980H(c)(2) and any 
applicable regulations.
    (2) Applicable large employer member. The term applicable large 
employer member means a person that, together with one or more other 
persons, is treated as a single employer that is an applicable large 
employer. For this purpose, if a person, together with one or more 
other persons, is treated as a single employer that is an applicable 
large employer on any day of a calendar month, that person is an 
applicable large employer member for that calendar month. If the 
applicable large employer comprises one person, that one person is the 
applicable large employer member. An applicable large employer member 
does not include a person that is not an employer or only an employer 
of employees with no hours of service for the calendar year.
    (3) Dependent. The term dependent has the same meaning as in 
section 4980H(a) and (b) and any applicable regulations.
    (4) Eligible employer-sponsored plan. The term eligible employer-
sponsored plan has the same meaning as in section 5000A(f)(2) and any 
applicable regulations.
    (5) Full-time employee. The term full-time employee has the same 
meaning as in section 4980H and any applicable regulations, as applied 
to the determination and calculation of liability under section 
4980H(a) and (b) with respect to any individual employee, and not as 
applied to the determination of status as an applicable large employer, 
if different.
    (6) Governmental unit. The term governmental unit refers to the 
government of the United States, any State or political subdivision 
thereof, or any Indian tribal government (as defined in section 
7701(a)(40)) or subdivision of an Indian tribal government (as defined 
in section 7871(d)).
    (7) Agency or instrumentality of a governmental unit. [Reserved]
    (8) Minimum essential coverage. The term minimum essential coverage 
has the same meaning as in section 5000A(f)(1) and any applicable 
regulations.
    (9) Minimum value. The term minimum value has the same meaning

[[Page 55011]]

as in section 36B and any applicable regulations.
    (10) Person. The term person has the same meaning as in section 
7701(a)(1) and applicable regulations.
    (c) Content and timing of reporting by applicable large employers. 
Each applicable large employer member required to make a return and 
furnish a related statement to its full-time employees under section 
6056 for a calendar year must make a return and furnish the related 
statement using such form(s) as may be prescribed by the Internal 
Revenue Service. An applicable large employer member will satisfy its 
reporting requirements under section 6056 if it files with the Internal 
Revenue Service a return for each full-time employee using Form 1095-C 
or another form the IRS designates, and a transmittal form using Form 
1094-C or another form the IRS designates, as prescribed in this 
section and in the instructions to the forms.
    (d) Information required to be reported to the Internal Revenue 
Service--(1) In general. Every applicable large employer member must 
make a section 6056 information return with respect to each full-time 
employee. Each section 6056 information return must show--
    (i) The name, address, and employer identification number of the 
applicable large employer member,
    (ii) The name and telephone number of the applicable large 
employer's contact person,
    (iii) The calendar year for which the information is reported,
    (iv) A certification as to whether the applicable large employer 
member offered to its full-time employees (and their dependents) the 
opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage under an eligible 
employer-sponsored plan (as defined in section 5000A(f)(2)), by 
calendar month,
    (v) The months during the calendar year for which coverage under 
the plan was available,
    (vi) Each full-time employee's share of the lowest cost monthly 
premium (self-only) for coverage providing minimum value offered to 
that full-time employee under an eligible employer-sponsored plan, by 
calendar month;
    (vii) The number of full-time employees for each month during the 
calendar year,
    (viii) The name, address, and taxpayer identification number of 
each full-time employee during the calendar year and the months, if 
any, during which the employee was covered under the plan, and
    (ix) Such other information as the Secretary may prescribe or as 
may be required by the form or instructions.
    (2) Form of the return. A return required under this paragraph (d) 
may be made on Forms 1094-C and 1095-C or other form(s) designated by 
the Internal Revenue Service, or a substitute form. A substitute form 
must include the information required to be reported on Forms 1094-C 
and 1095-C and must comply with applicable revenue procedures or other 
published guidance relating to substitute statements. See Sec.  
601.601(d)(2) of this chapter.
    (e) Time and place for filing return--(1) In general. An applicable 
large employer member must file each return and transmittal form 
required under paragraph (d)(2) of this section on or before February 
28 (March 31 if filed electronically) of the year succeeding the 
calendar year to which it relates in accordance with any applicable 
guidance and the instructions to the form. An applicable large employer 
member must file the return and transmittal form at the address 
specified on the return form or its instructions.
    (2) Extensions of time for filing. [Reserved]
    (f) Electronic filing of returns. The section 6056 return is 
required to be filed electronically, except as otherwise provided in 
Sec.  301.6011-9.
    (g) Statements required to be furnished to full-time employees--(1) 
In general. Every applicable large employer member required to file a 
return under section 6056 must furnish to each of its full-time 
employees identified on the return a written statement showing--
    (i) The name, address and employer identification number of the 
applicable large employer member, and
    (ii) The information required to be shown on the section 6056 
return with respect to the full-time employee.
    (2) Form of the statement. A statement required under this 
paragraph (g) may be made either by furnishing to the full-time 
employee a copy of Form 1095-C or another form the IRS designates as 
prescribed in this section and in the instructions to such forms, or a 
substitute statement. A substitute statement must include the 
information required to be shown on Form 1095-C or another form the IRS 
designates and must comply with applicable revenue procedures or other 
published guidance relating to substitute statements. See Sec.  
601.601(d)(2). An Internal Revenue Service truncated taxpayer 
identification number may be used as the identifying number for an 
individual in lieu of the identifying number appearing on the 
corresponding information return filed with the Internal Revenue 
Service.
    (h) Time and manner for furnishing statements--(1) Each statement 
required by this section for a calendar year must be furnished to a 
full-time employee on or before January 31 of the year succeeding that 
calendar year in accordance with applicable Internal Revenue Service 
procedures and instructions or as provided in Sec.  301.6056-2.
    (2) Extensions of time--(i) In general. For good cause upon written 
application of the person required to furnish statements under this 
section, the Internal Revenue Service may grant an extension of time 
not exceeding 30 days in which to furnish such statements. The 
application must be addressed to the Internal Revenue Service, and must 
contain a full recital of the reasons for requesting the extension to 
aid the Internal Revenue Service in determining the period of the 
extension, if any, that will be granted. Such a request in the form of 
a letter to the Internal Revenue Service, signed by the applicant, will 
suffice as an application. The application must be filed on or before 
the date prescribed in paragraph (h)(1) of this section.
    (ii) Automatic extension of time. The Commissioner may, in 
appropriate cases, prescribe additional guidance or procedures, 
published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin (see Sec.  
601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b)), for automatic extensions of time to furnish to 
one or more full-time employees the statement required under section 
6056.
    (i) Correction of information return. If the information reported 
on a return required pursuant to section 6056 for a full-time employee 
for a prior year was incomplete or incorrect, a corrected return 
accompanied by a transmittal form must be filed with the Internal 
Revenue Service as soon as possible after the correction is made. The 
return must be identified as corrected. A copy of the corrected return 
for the prior year reflecting the correct data must be furnished to the 
employee as soon as possible after the correction is made.
    (j) Information reporting penalties. Section 6724(d)(1)(B)(xxv) and 
(d)(2)(HH) provides that for purposes of Subtitle F, Chapter 68, 
Subchapter B, Part II (sections 6721 et seq.), the terms information 
return and payee statement include the return required under section 
6056 and the statement required to be furnished under section 6056(c). 
An applicable large employer member who fails to comply with the filing 
and statement requirements under section 6056 is subject to the 
penalties under sections 6721 (failure to file correct

[[Page 55012]]

information returns) and 6722 (failure to furnish correct payee 
statement), and the waiver and special rules provisions under section 
6724, and the applicable regulations.
    (k) Special rules for governmental units--(1) Person appropriately 
designated. In the case of any applicable large employer member that is 
a governmental unit or any agency or instrumentality thereof, the 
person or persons appropriately designated under section 6056(e) for 
purposes of the filing and furnishing requirements of section 6056 must 
be part of or related to the same governmental unit as the applicable 
large employer member. The applicable large employer member must make 
(or revoke) the designation before the earlier of the deadline for 
filing the returns or furnishing the statements required by this 
section. A person that has been appropriately designated under section 
6056(e) must file a separate section 6056 return and transmittal for 
each applicable large employer member for which the person is 
reporting. The person appropriately designated under section 6056(e) 
assumes responsibility for the section 6056 requirements on behalf of 
the applicable large employer member for which the person is 
designated.
    (2) Written designation. The designation under section 6056(e) must 
be made in writing, must be signed by both the applicable large 
employer member and the designated person, and must be effective under 
all applicable laws. The designation must set forth the name and 
employer identification number of the designated person, and appoint 
such person as the person responsible for reporting under section 6056 
on behalf of the applicable large employer member. The designation must 
contain information identifying the category of full-time employees 
(which may be full-time employees eligible for a specified health plan, 
or in a particular job category, as long as the specific employees 
covered by the designation can be identified) for which the designated 
person is responsible for reporting under section 6056 on behalf of the 
applicable large employer member. If the designated person is 
responsible for reporting under section 6056 for all full-time 
employees of an applicable large employer member, the designation must 
so indicate. The designation must contain language that the designated 
person agrees and certifies that it is the appropriately designated 
person under section 6056(e), and an acknowledgement that the 
designated person is responsible for reporting under section 6056 on 
behalf of the applicable large employer member and subject to the 
requirements of section 6056, including for purposes of information 
reporting requirements under sections 6721, 6722, and 6724. The 
designation must also set forth the name and employer identification 
number of the applicable large employer member, identifying the 
applicable large employer member as the person subject to the 
requirements of section 4980H. An equivalent applicable statutory or 
regulatory designation containing the language described in this 
paragraph (k)(2) will be treated as a written designation for purposes 
of section 6056(e) and this section.
    (l) Additional guidance. The Commissioner may prescribe additional 
guidance of general applicability, published in the Internal Revenue 
Bulletin (see Sec.  601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b)) to provide additional rules 
under section 6056, including rules permitting use of alternate 
optional methods to meet reporting requirements.
    (m) Effective/applicability date. The rules of this section are 
effective as of the date of publication of the Treasury decision 
adopting these rules as final regulations in the Federal Register. This 
section applies for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2014. 
Reporting entities will not be subject to penalties under sections 6721 
or 6722 with respect to the reporting requirements for 2014 (for 
information returns filed and for statements furnished to employees in 
2015).
0
Par 4. Section 301.6056-2 is added to read as follows:


Sec.  301.6056-2  Electronic furnishing of statements.

    (a) Electronic furnishing of statements--(1) In general. An 
applicable large employer member required by Sec.  301.6056-1 to 
furnish a statement (furnisher) to a full-time employee (a recipient) 
may furnish the statement in an electronic format in lieu of a paper 
format, provided that the employer meets the requirements of paragraphs 
(a)(2) through (a)(6) of this section. An applicable large employer 
member who meets the requirements of paragraphs (a)(2) through (6) of 
this section is treated as furnishing the statement in a timely manner.
    (2) Consent--(i) In general. The recipient must have affirmatively 
consented to receive the statement in an electronic format. The consent 
may be made electronically in any manner that reasonably demonstrates 
that the recipient can access the statement in the electronic format in 
which it will be furnished to the recipient. Alternatively, the consent 
may be made in a paper document if it is confirmed electronically.
    (ii) Withdrawal of consent. The consent requirement of this 
paragraph (a)(2) is not satisfied if the recipient withdraws the 
consent and the withdrawal takes effect before the statement is 
furnished. The furnisher may provide that a withdrawal of consent takes 
effect either on the date it is received by the furnisher or on a 
subsequent date. The furnisher may also provide that a request for a 
paper statement will be treated as a withdrawal of consent.
    (iii) Change in hardware or software requirements. If a change in 
the hardware or software required to access the statement creates a 
material risk that the recipient will not be able to access the 
statement, the furnisher must, prior to changing the hardware or 
software, provide the recipient with a notice. The notice must describe 
the revised hardware and software required to access the statement and 
inform the recipient that a new consent to receive the statement in the 
revised electronic format must be provided to the furnisher. After 
implementing the revised hardware and software, the furnisher must 
obtain from the recipient, in the manner described in paragraph 
(a)(2)(i) of this section, a new consent or confirmation of consent to 
receive the statement electronically.
    (iv) Examples. The following examples illustrate the rules of this 
paragraph (a)(2):

    Example 1. Furnisher F sends Recipient R a letter stating that R 
may consent to receive section 6056 statements electronically on a 
Web site instead of in a paper format. The letter contains 
instructions explaining how to consent to receive section 6056 
statements electronically by accessing the Web site, downloading the 
consent document, completing the consent document and emailing the 
completed consent back to F. The consent document posted on the Web 
site uses the same electronic format that F will use for the 
electronically furnished section 6056 statements. R reads the 
instructions and submits the consent to receive the statements 
electronically in the manner described in paragraph (a)(2)(i) of 
this section. R has consented to receive the statements 
electronically in the manner described in paragraph (a)(2)(i) of 
this section.

    Example 2. Furnisher F sends Recipient R an email stating that R 
may consent to receive section 6056 statements electronically 
instead of in a paper format. The email contains an attachment 
instructing R how to consent to receive section 6056 statements 
electronically. The email attachment uses the same electronic format 
that F will use for the electronically furnished section 6056 
statements. R opens the attachment, reads the instructions, and

[[Page 55013]]

submits the consent in the manner provided in the instructions. R 
has consented to receive section 6056 statements electronically in 
the manner described in paragraph (a)(2)(i) of this section.

    Example 3. Furnisher F posts a notice on its Web site stating 
that Recipient R may receive section 6056 statements electronically 
instead of in a paper format. The Web site contains instructions on 
how R may access a secure Web page and consent to receive the 
statements electronically. By accessing the secure Web page and 
giving consent, R has consented to receive section 6056 statements 
electronically in the manner described in paragraph (a)(2)(i).

    (3) Required disclosures--(i) In general. Prior to, or at the time 
of, a recipient's consent, the furnisher must provide to the recipient 
a clear and conspicuous disclosure statement containing each of the 
disclosures described in paragraphs (a)(3)(ii) through (viii) of this 
section.
    (ii) Paper statement. The recipient must be informed that the 
statement will be furnished on paper if the recipient does not consent 
to receive it electronically.
    (iii) Scope and duration of consent. The recipient must be informed 
of the scope and duration of the consent. For example, the recipient 
must be informed whether the consent applies to each statement required 
to be furnished after the consent is given until it is withdrawn in the 
manner described in paragraph (a)(3)(v)(A) of this section or only to 
the first statement required to be furnished following the date on 
which the consent is given.
    (iv) Post-consent request for a paper statement. The recipient must 
be informed of any procedure for obtaining a paper copy of the 
recipient's statement after giving the consent described in paragraph 
(a)(2)(i) of this section and whether a request for a paper statement 
will be treated as a withdrawal of consent.
    (v) Withdrawal of consent. The recipient must be informed that--
    (A) The recipient may withdraw a consent by writing (electronically 
or on paper) to the person or department whose name, mailing address, 
telephone number, and email address is provided in the disclosure 
statement,
    (B) The furnisher will confirm the withdrawal and the date on which 
it takes effect in writing (either electronically or on paper), and
    (C) A withdrawal of consent does not apply to a statement that was 
furnished electronically in the manner described in this paragraph (a) 
before the date on which the withdrawal of consent takes effect.
    (vi) Notice of termination. The recipient must be informed of the 
conditions under which a furnisher will cease furnishing statements 
electronically to the recipient (for example, termination of the 
recipient's employment with furnisher-employer).
    (vii) Updating information. The recipient must be informed of the 
procedures for updating the information needed by the furnisher to 
contact the recipient. The furnisher must inform the recipient of any 
change in the furnisher's contact information.
    (viii) Hardware and software requirements. The recipient must be 
provided with a description of the hardware and software required to 
access, print, and retain the statement, and the date when the 
statement will no longer be available on the Web site. The recipient 
must be informed that the statement may be required to be printed and 
attached to a Federal, State, or local income tax return.
    (4) Format. The electronic version of the statement must contain 
all required information and comply with applicable revenue procedures 
relating to substitute statements to recipients.
    (5) Notice--(i) In general. If the statement is furnished on a Web 
site, the furnisher must notify the recipient that the statement is 
posted on a Web site. The notice may be delivered by mail, electronic 
mail, or in person. The notice must provide instructions on how to 
access and print the statement. The notice must include the following 
statement in capital letters, ``IMPORTANT TAX RETURN DOCUMENT 
AVAILABLE.'' If the notice is provided by electronic mail, the 
foregoing statement must be on the subject line of the electronic mail.
    (ii) Undeliverable electronic address. If an electronic notice 
described in paragraph (a)(5)(i) of this section is returned as 
undeliverable, and the correct electronic address cannot be obtained 
from the furnisher's records or from the recipient, then the furnisher 
must furnish the notice by mail or in person within 30 days after the 
electronic notice is returned.
    (iii) Corrected statement. If the furnisher has corrected a 
recipient's statement as directed in Sec.  301.6056-1(k) and the 
statement was furnished electronically, the furnisher must furnish the 
corrected statement to the recipient electronically. If the recipient's 
statement was furnished through a Web site posting and the furnisher 
has corrected the statement, the furnisher must notify the recipient 
that it has posted the corrected statement on the Web site within 30 
days of such posting in the manner described in paragraph (a)(5)(i) of 
this section. The corrected statement or the notice must be furnished 
by mail or in person if--
    (A) An electronic notice of the Web site posting of an original 
statement or the corrected statement was returned as undeliverable, and
    (B) The recipient has not provided a new email address.
    (6) Access period. Statements furnished on a Web site must be 
retained on the Web site through October 15 of the year following the 
calendar year to which the statements relate (or the first business day 
after October 15, if October 15 falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal 
holiday). The furnisher must maintain access to corrected statements 
that are posted on the Web site through October 15 of the year 
following the calendar year to which the statements relate (or the 
first business day after such October 15, if October 15 falls on a 
Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday) or the date 90 days after the 
corrected forms are posted, whichever is later.
    (7) Paper statements after withdrawal of consent. If a recipient 
withdraws consent to receive a statement electronically and the 
withdrawal takes effect before the statement is furnished 
electronically, a paper statement must be furnished. A paper statement 
furnished after the statement due date under this paragraph (a)(7) will 
be considered timely if furnished within 30 days after the date the 
withdrawal of consent is received by the furnisher.
    (b) Effective/applicability date. The rules of this section are 
effective as of the date of publication of the Treasury decision 
adopting these rules as final regulations in the Federal Register. This 
section applies for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2014. 
Reporting entities will not be subject to penalties under sections 6721 
or 6722 with respect to the reporting requirements for 2014 (for 
information returns filed and for statements furnished to employees in 
2015).

Heather C. Maloy,
Acting Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement.
[FR Doc. 2013-21791 Filed 9-5-13; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 4830-01-P