Get Started: Get ready to compile health insurance forms

HEALTH INSURANCE FORMS

With the arrival of tax reporting season, many small businesses that offer health insurance to employees must file documents detailing the coverage with the IRS, and must also give copies to their staffers.

At look at the requirements:

—Companies with 50 or more staffers are required to offer insurance to staffers and their dependents. They must provide a document known as Form 1095-C to each employee by March 2; the form includes information on who was covered in the staffer's family, how many months they were covered during the year and how much the insurance cost the employee. Companies must file with the IRS a Form 1095-C for each staffer and also Form 1094-C, which collects and sums up the information on a company's coverage.

Those forms are due with the IRS by Feb. 28 if companies are using paper forms, or March 31 if they're filing electronically. Companies must file electronically if they are sending the IRS 250 or more of Form 1095-C.

—Companies with fewer than 50 staffers are not required to offer insurance, but if they have a self-insured or self-funded plan, in which they rather than insurers pay for employees' claims, they must report information on their coverage. These businesses must provide a Form 1095-B to each staffer by March 2. These forms are similar to Form 1095-C, providing detailed information on each staffer's insurance. Companies must also file with the IRS a Form 1095-B for each employee and a Form 1094-C, a simple document reporting the number of 1095-B forms being filed.

The deadlines are the same as for larger companies: by Feb. 28 if companies are using paper forms, or March 31 if they're filing electronically.

Companies with fewer than 50 staffers whose coverage is paid by an insurance carrier are not required to file similar forms; that is the responsibility of the insurance company.

You can get more information at the IRS website, www.irs.gov .

GETTING YOUR EMAILS OPENED, NOT DELETED

How to get your company's emails noticed and opened will be the topic of an online seminar sponsored by SCORE, the organization that gives free counseling to small businesses. It will be held Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Learn more and register at http://bit.ly/2iXtsVd

Follow Joyce Rosenberg at www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg . Her work can be found here: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joyce-m-rosenberg