IRS Explains Notice Requirements for Employers to Skip Furnishing Form 1095-C

Applicable large employers (ALEs) have a new option to skip furnishing Form 1095-C to full-time employees and employees enrolled in an employer-sponsored self-insured plan (eligible employees) if certain conditions are met. On December 23, 2024, President Biden signed the Paperwork Burden Reduction Act (HR 3797) into law. This law adds an option where ALEs do not have to automatically furnish Form 1095-C to eligible employees and instead, ALEs will be treated as timely furnishing the required Form 1095-C if they provide a notice to eligible employees informing them that they can request a copy of their Form 1095-C (Notice). Please see our Special Bulletin describing the Paperwork Burden Reduction Act (HR 3797) for more information.

The language in the Paperwork Burden Reduction Act states that the Notice to employees must be “clear, conspicuous, and accessible (at such time and in such manner as the Secretary may provide)….” It was initially unclear what type of notice would suffice to allow an ALE to skip furnishing Form 1095-C because the Secretary of Treasury had not issued any information.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued awaited guidance on the “time” and “manner” required for such Notice. (See IRS Notice 2025-15.) The IRS will apply the time and manner requirements from Treasury Regulation section 1.6055-1(g)(4)(ii)(B)(1)-(3). Under these requirements, the Notice must:

• Post a clear and conspicuous notice in a location on the ALE’s website that is reasonably accessible to full-time employees;
• State that employees may receive a copy of their statement upon request;
• Explain how employees may request a copy of their Form 1095-C;
• Include an email address and a physical address where employees can make a request for their Form 1095-C;
• Include a telephone number that employees may use to contact the ALE with questions; and
• Be written in plain, non-technical terms and with letters of a font size large enough to call a viewer’s attention that the information pertains to tax statements reporting health coverage. For example, a website that includes words on the main page reading “Tax Information” and a secondary page that includes the statement “IMPORTANT HEALTH COVERAGE TAX DOCUMENTS” in capital letters.

The Notice must be posted on the ALE’s website by the due date for furnishing Form 1095-C, including the automatic 30-day extension (i.e., 30 days after January 31). The notice must remain on the ALE’s website through October 15 of the year following the calendar year that the Form 1095-C covers (or the first business day after if it falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday.) For Form 1095-Cs covering tax year 2024, the required posting period would March 3, 2025 to October 15, 2025.

If an employee requests their Form 1095-C, then the ALE must furnish the Form 1095-C to the employee no later than: (i) January 31 in the year following the calendar year the Form 1095-C covers; or (ii) 30 days after the request date.

The IRS only recently issued this guidance on February 21, 2025. Since the start date ALEs would be required to post the Notice (March 3, 2025) has passed, it is now too late for ALEs to follow the IRS’s guidance on the time and manner of the Notice to skip furnishing Form 1095-Cs for this year. Any ALEs interested in utilizing the option to skip furnishing Form 1095-Cs in the future should follow the IRS’s guidance on how, when, and where to post the notice and what to include in the Notice for future years.

See IRS Notice 2025-15 for more information, available at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-25-15.pdf.