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§ 1.6055–1 of this chapter must file the
return on magnetic media if the person
is required to file to least 250 returns
during the calendar year. Returns filed
on magnetic media must be made in
accordance with applicable
publications, forms, instructions, or
published guidance, see §§ 601.601(d)
and 601.602 of this chapter.
(b) Magnetic media. For purposes of
this section, the term magnetic media
has the same meaning as in § 301.6011–
2(a)(1).
(c) Determination of 250 returns. For
purposes of this section, a person is
required to file at least 250 returns if,
during the calendar year, the person 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.
(d) Waiver. The Commissioner may
waive the requirements of this section
in cases of hardship in accordance with
§ 301.6011–2(c)(2)(i).
(e) Failure to file. If a person fails to
file an information return on magnetic
media when required by this section,
the person is deemed to have failed to
file the return. See section 6721 for
penalties for failure to file returns and
see section 6724 and the regulations
under section 6721 for failure to file on
magnetic media.
(f) Effective/applicability date. This
section applies to returns on Form
1095–B or another form the IRS
designates required to be filed after
December 31, 2015. Reporting entities
will not be subject to penalties under
section 6721 with respect to the
reporting requirements for 2014 (for
information returns that would have
been required to be filed in 2015 with
respect to 2014).
■ Par 6. Section 301.6721–1 is amended
by removing the word ‘‘or’’ after
paragraph (g)(3)(xxii), removing the
period and adding a semi-colon in its
place after paragraph (g)(3)(xxiii), and
adding paragraphs (g)(3)(xxiv) and
(g)(3)(xxv) to read as follows:
§ 301.6721–1 Failure to file correct
information returns.

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*

*
*
*
*
(g) * * *
(3) * * *
(xxiv) Section 6055 (relating to
information returns reporting minimum
essential coverage); or
(xxv) Section 6056 (relating to
information returns reporting on offers
of health insurance coverage by
applicable large employer members).
*
*
*
*
*
■ Par 7. Section 301.6722–1 is amended
by removing the word ‘‘or’’ after

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paragraph (d)(2)(xxxi), removing the
period and adding a semi-colon in its
place after paragraph (d)(2)(xxxii), and
adding paragraphs (d)(2)(xxxiii) and
(d)(2)(xxxiv) to read as follows:
§ 301.6722–1 Failure to furnish correct
payee statements.

*

*
*
*
*
(d) * * *
(2) * * *
(xxxiii) Section 6055 (relating to
information returns reporting minimum
essential coverage); or
(xxxiv) Section 6056 (relating to
information returns reporting on offers
of health insurance coverage by
applicable large employer members).
*
*
*
*
*
Heather C. Maloy,
Acting Deputy Commissioner for Services and
Enforcement.
[FR Doc. 2013–21783 Filed 9–5–13; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 4830–01–P

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 EmployerSponsored Plans
Internal Revenue Service (IRS),
Treasury.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking
and notice of public hearing.
AGENCY:

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

SUMMARY:

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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 handdelivered 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:

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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 §§ 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

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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).
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
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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54997

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 fulltime 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 § 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 §§ 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 employersponsored 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

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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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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.
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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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 employersponsored 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

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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.
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
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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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
Section VII ................
Section VIII ...............
Section IX .................

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Section
Section
Section
Section

X ...................
XI .................
XII ................
XIII ...............

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:

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

VII. Key Terms

B. ALE Member

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:

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

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 § 54.4980H–
1(a)(4).

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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 § 54.4980H–1(a)(5).

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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

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for that calendar month. This definition
is the same as the definition provided in
the proposed regulations under section
4980H. See § 54.4980H–1(a)(5).
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 § 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 § 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.

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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
§ 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

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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 §§ 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).
Generally, the ALE member providing
the section 6056 reporting is the
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
§ 54.4980H–5(d).

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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
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
6 Specifically, the proposed regulations under
section 7701 (REG–138006–12 [78 FR 218]) treat the
disregarded entity (as defined in § 301.7701–2) as
a corporation with respect to the reporting
requirements under section 6056. See proposed
§ 301.7701–2(c)(2)(v)(A)(5). These rules would also
apply to a qualified subchapter S subsidiary. See
proposed § 1.1361–4(a)(8)(i)(E).

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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 § 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 fulltime 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 fulltime employee, the employee’s share of
the lowest cost monthly premium (selfonly) 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

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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 employersponsored 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

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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 employersponsored 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 employersponsored 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

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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).

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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
(1) minimum essential coverage
meeting minimum value was offered to:
a. the employee only;
b. the employee and the employee’s
dependents only;
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.

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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 § 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

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with the IRS with respect to that
employee and must comply with
applicable revenue procedures or other
published guidance relating to
substitute statements. See
§ 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.

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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

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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.

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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 fulltime 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 employerlevel information being provided
separately). In addition, in other limited
circumstances involving no-cost or very
low-cost coverage provided under a selfinsured group health plan, Treasury and

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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
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 preenrollment 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.

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Subsection A .............
Subsection B .............

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.

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

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

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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 § 601.601(d)(2) of
this chapter.

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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 http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/

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healthreform/. Guidance on the Notice to
Employees of Coverage.
9 Available at https://www.healthcare.gov/
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Subsection C .............

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Subsection D .............
Subsection E .............
Subsection F .............

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

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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

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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 thirdparty 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

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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 overreporting 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

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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 fulltime 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 fulltime 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

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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

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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 preenrollment 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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 174 / Monday, September 9, 2013 / Proposed Rules
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.

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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

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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

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55009

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

■

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

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

■

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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 174 / Monday, September 9, 2013 / Proposed Rules

§ 301.6011–9 Electronic filing of section
6056 returns.

(a) Returns required under section
6056. An applicable large employer
member, as defined in § 301.6056–
1(b)(2), is required to file electronically
an information return under section
6056 and § 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.

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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
§ 601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter).

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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).
■ Par. 3. Section 301.6056–1 is added to
read as follows:
§ 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)

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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 fulltime 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

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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 174 / Monday, September 9, 2013 / Proposed Rules
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 (selfonly) 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

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(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
§ 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 § 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 fulltime 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
§ 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

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55011

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
§ 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
§ 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

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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

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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 § 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).
■ Par 4. Section 301.6056–2 is added to
read as follows:
§ 301.6056–2
statements.

Electronic furnishing of

(a) Electronic furnishing of
statements—(1) In general. An
applicable large employer member
required by § 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

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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

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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 174 / Monday, September 9, 2013 / Proposed Rules
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.

tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS

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

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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 § 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

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55013

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

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