There are a lot of compliance issues surrounding ObamaCare and small businesses. Some of the mandates are already in place, others are yet to come. ObamaCare compliance issues for small businesses involve employers and owners of companies to do certain things that are mandated by law. Some of the mandates are notifications to employees, even if they are not on the Health Insurance plan. Others mandates involve compliance paperwork that is to be kept up to date, distributed to employees and on hand in the event that the Dept of Labor comes calling. Compliance issues for small business can also be certain mandated forms that are to be completed and sent to the IRS and the DOL. Usually they involve information about the Health Insurance plan that is provided or not, by the employer.
Health Insurance paperwork that is required to be submitted to the IRS in the near future
Coming in 2015, whether you are required by law to offer Health Insurance or not, is paperwork that will be submitted to the IRS detailing how many of your employees have Health Insurance and for how many months. They also want to know the contribution, the plan design, social security number of the employee, your employer tax ID number, and a bunch of other information. If you have under 50 full time and full time equivalent employees, you still will not be required to offer Group Health Insurance to employees, but if you do, there will be reporting requirements to adhere to. If you have between 50-99 employees, you get a free pass for 2015. The ObamaCare compliance reporting is still required though.
Employers that have between 50-99 employees and over 100 employees
Employers that are under 100 employees but over 50, will not have to offer Health Insurance coverage for the 2015 year. The reporting is still required by the IRS, section 1095 for the 2015 year. Those employers with 100+ employees need to strategize something pretty fast. January is only a few months away. Here is the dilemma. When an employer offers coverage to their employees, agree to contribute the right amount but the employees will not enroll, what do they do? That question has yet to be answered. The employer has fulfilled their requirement, but is not getting the cooperation of the employees, what happens then. The insurance companies all have their minimum employee participation numbers, but will they have to lower them? No one knows, and I have not been able to get a straight answer from anyone.