William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

In its Health Care Tax Tip 2014-09, the IRS answered the question:  Must a taxpayer report on the income tax return (form 1040) the value of his/her employer-sponsored health insurance coverage?  The employer has included the cost of the employer-sponsored health insurance coverage on an employee’s W-2, Wage and Tax Statement.  What must a taxpayer do with this information?

The Affordable Care Act requires employers to report the cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan. Reporting the cost of health care coverage on the Form W-2 does not mean that the coverage is taxable. The value of the employer’s excludable contribution to health coverage continues to be excludable from an employee’s income, and it is not taxable. This reporting is for informational purposes only and will provide employees useful and comparable consumer information on the cost of their health care coverage.

Employers that provide “applicable employer-sponsored coverage” under a group health plan are subject to the reporting requirement. This includes businesses, tax-exempt organizations, and federal, state and local government entities (except with respect to plans maintained primarily for members of the military and their families). However, federally recognized Indian tribal governments are not subject to this requirement.  See Form-W-2-Reporting-of-Employer-Sponsored-Health-Coverage

Here is what the IRS stated about the amount shown on the W-2 “employer-sponsored health insurance coverage”.

• The health care law requires certain employers to report the cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan.
• The amount of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage appears in Box 12 of the W-2, and has the code letters “DD” next to it.
• Reporting the cost of health care coverage on the Form W-2 does not mean that the coverage is taxable or that it needs to be reported on the tax return.
• The amount in Box 12 is only for government information collection only, and shows the payments made by the taxpayer and the employer and is not included in the amount shown in Box 1, which is the amount of taxable earnings.

Reporting on the Form W-2

The value of the health care coverage will be reported in Box 12 of the Form W-2, with Code DD to identify the amount. There is no reporting on the Form W-3 of the total of these amounts for all the employer’s employees.

In general, the amount reported should include both the portion paid by the employer and the portion paid by the employee. See the chart, below, and the questions and answers for more information.

An employer is not required to issue a Form W-2 solely to report the value of the health care coverage for retirees or other employees or former employees to whom the employer would not otherwise provide a Form W-2.

The chart was created at the suggestion of and in collaboration with the IRS’ Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee (IRPAC). IRPAC’s members are representatives of industries responsible for providing information returns, such as Form W-2, to the IRS. IRPAC works with IRS to improve the information reporting process.