What the Heck Is Form 1095-C?

What the Heck Is Form 1095-C? IRS Form 1095-C, “Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Insurance," is a new document that your employer may send you this tax season. This is the first tax season that this form is being sent to taxpayers.  The first thing to know: The Form 1095-C details your 2015 health insurance coverage. It is a reference document. You are not required to fill it out and you don’t need to amend your returns if you’ve already filed. You refer to this form when deciding whether to check the "Health care: individual responsibility” box on your tax return, indicating full-year health coverage. That box is on Line 61 on IRS Form 1040; Line 11 on IRS Form 1040EZ, and Line 38 on IRS Form 1040A. If you use tax software, the guided program will do this for you. Form 1095-C complements two other health insurance disclosures that taxpayers already have seen: Form 1095-A, provided by your state healthcare marketplace; and 1095-B, supplied by the health insurer your employer used in 2015. You may not receive all three forms. The IRS has given employers until March 31 to send Forms 1095-B and 1095-C to employees. But there is no need to worry if you get them after you’ve filed. What to Do If you filed your taxes already and then got Form 1095-C or 1095-B, you don’t have to file an amended return or send the form to the IRS. In fact, you don’t need to do anything with the documents except keep them with your records for tax-year 2015.  Don’t wait to file your tax return because you’re waiting for forms 1095-B or 1095-C. While health coverage information on those forms could help you prepare your taxes, you can get the information you need from other sources including your employer or your health insurer. For instance, your family’s health insurance cards will show when their coverage was effective.  If you enrolled in a marketplace health plan, you must wait for Form 1095-A to file. In that case, information in Part II of Form 1095-C could help determine if you’re eligible for the premium tax credit. And Part III can help you determine if you qualify for an exemption from the requirement to have coverage. (Tax software will ask you for the codes printed in those sections and figure it out for you.) If you don’t qualify, you must make what the IRS calls an individual shared responsibility payment, otherwise known as a tax penalty. Additional Information The Form 1095-C is sent to those who worked full-time in 2015 for what the IRS calls “an applicable larger employer.” That means an employer with 50 or more full-time employees. You could get the form even if you weren’t a full-timer. You also could get more than one 1095-C, from different employers. Parts I and II of 1095-C always will be filled in. Line 14 describes—in code—what coverage, if any, your employer offered you in 2015. The code on Line 15 indicates whether the coverage was considered by Obamacare to be affordable. Line 16 says why you were or were not offered coverage. You can click here for a key to the codes.  Part III only will be filled in if your employer offered a “self-insured” plan. That means the employer shouldered the financial responsibility for your coverage, even if an insurer was the administrator. Part III details who was covered by that plan, and for how many months in 2015 they were covered.  If your Form 1095-C only had Parts I and II filled out, you also may receive Form 1095-B, the proof of coverage from the insurance company your employer used.  The IRS doesn’t issue Form 1095-C, employers do. So if you think you should have received it already but haven’t, you can talk to your employer. But proceed with your tax preparation as planned. Here’s more information from the IRS on all three Form 1095s. Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S.

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