#health-insurance
Track health insurance costs and employee benefits
How Applicable Large Employers file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C for the 2025 reporting year. Covers the March 2 and March 31, 2026 deadlines, the post-2024 furnishing-on-request rule, the 2026 penalty amounts ($3,340 and $5,010 per employee), the new 90-day Letter 226-J response window, and the Line 14/16 coding errors that most often trigger IRS audits.
COBRA's notice scheme runs on five deadlines — 90, 30, 14, 60, and 45 days. Miss any one and a group health plan can face a $100-per-day Section 4980B excise tax, up to $110-per-day ERISA penalties, and private lawsuits. A practical guide for plan sponsors and HR teams.
For plan years ending in 2025, self-insured plan sponsors and HRA employers must file Form 720 by July 31, 2026 and pay $3.84 per covered life ($3.47 for plan years ending before October 1, 2025). This guide covers who owes the fee, the three approved methods to calculate average covered lives, why HRAs count employees only, and the common Form 720 filing mistakes that trigger IRS notices.
Section 162(l) lets self-employed taxpayers deduct 100% of medical, dental, vision, Medicare, and long-term care premiums above the line on Schedule 1, Line 17 via Form 7206. This guide covers the earned-income ceiling, the subsidized-employer trap, the S-corp W-2 inclusion step, and the ACA Premium Tax Credit iteration for the 2026 tax year.
For 2026, QSEHRA caps tax-free reimbursements at $6,450 self-only and $13,100 family for employers under 50 FTEs, while ICHRA has no IRS cap and lets any-size employer vary contributions across 11 federal employee classes—provided the 9.96% affordability test, MEC requirement, and 90-day notice are all met.
A funding-model guide for small employers comparing fully-insured, level-funded, and self-funded group health plans, with the math on stop-loss coverage, ERISA fiduciary exposure, Form 5500 filings, and when each model actually saves money.
An Individual Coverage HRA lets small employers reimburse workers tax-free for individual ACA plans with no contribution cap, 11 employee classes, and a 9.96% affordability threshold for 2026. Here is how the mechanics, tax treatment, bookkeeping, and 90-day rollout actually work.
Employers with fewer than 25 FTEs and average annual wages below the IRS cap can claim up to 50% of health insurance premiums through the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit. This guide covers 2026 eligibility, the sliding-scale math, Form 8941 mechanics, and the mistakes that kill otherwise valid claims.
Self-employed filers can deduct 100% of qualifying health insurance premiums above-the-line via Form 7206 and Schedule 1 line 17, provided the business is profitable and neither spouse had access to subsidized employer coverage. The guide covers S corporation W-2 requirements, ACA marketplace subsidy circular calculations, age-based long-term care caps, and the five most common errors that trigger IRS disallowance.
Learn the essential tax rules for S corporation owners regarding health insurance premiums and how to maximize deductions while avoiding costly mistakes.
