U.S. Affordable Care Act (ACA) Information Reporting 2016

[former_member109388]

Hello community,

This is our U.S. Affordable Care Act (ACA) Information Reporting 2016 blog post.

If you have questions about 2016 ACA reporting, you can post it here.

This blog will be updated with tips and SAP Notes related to this subject.

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More information about the planned legal change please read the SAP note below:

2359091 - Announcement Note for Affordable Care Act Information Reporting 2016
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Kind regards,

Roger Oliveira

[Former Member]

Thanks for the reply, Debbie!  I was able to find out what the issue was (all of the objects from one of the SAP notes had not been applied/activated) and we are past this issue!

Best,

Al

[Former Member]

Hello everyone,

Our first attempt at submitting Scenario 7 to the IRS AATS was "accepted with errors."  I found that the code in our class ZCL_HRBENUS_AA_AATS_TC_7 which calls the method ADJUST_SSN_C is not being executed.  I am following the 2016 edition of the SAP Cookbook for IRS AATS Submission 7 Narratives, and everything (that I have found in our system) seems to check out.

Specifically, the code is failing at the bolded line below:
LOOP AT mt_pernr_test_case INTO ls_ee_tcase_data.
LOOP AT <ls_xml_c_data>-form_data-form1095cupstreamdetail ASSIGNING <ls_xml_1095_c>
WHERE employeeinfogrp-ssn = ls_ee_tcase_data-ssn
AND employeeinfogrp-othercompletepersonname-personfirstnm = ls_ee_tcase_data-first_name
AND employeeinfogrp-othercompletepersonname-personlastnm = ls_ee_tcase_data-last_name.
adjust_ssn_c( CHANGING cs_form_data = <ls_xml_1095_c> ).
ENDLOOP.
ENDLOOP.

It seems that the variable employeeinfogroup is not being filled, so the code never calls the ADJUST_SSN_C method to insert the correct SSN for the test employee.

I was wondering if any of you all possibly encountered this issue in your communications testing and if so, what did you do to resolve it?  Naturally, I can manually modify the XML file and that would allow the AATS system to accept our file, but I would like to know if this is the best/preferred course of action.

Thanks and best regards,

Al Ling

The University of Mississippi

[MWest]

Hello Al,

For step 7 of section Customizing Activities in the Cookbook for AATS Submission 7 Narratives, please ensure that you have entered the same SSN that was used for your test employee for the HR Attribute entry AT_ACA_SSN01.

Regards,

Margaret

[Cynthia_Garza]

I was just informed by my Benefits team that we need to change from generating 1095-C forms to filing 1095-B forms for one of our ALEs that is composed of only retirees. We got a warning from the IRS when we transmitted for 2015 stating that there were not FTEs so we were basically filing incorrectly (by filing the C forms).

So I did the following to change my configuration: 1) I updated feature UBABC so that the people in the appropriate personnel areas would get the correct forms (B vs. C). That part seems to be working correctly. The other thing I changed was, I added a health plan characteristic for the plan in question for PB - Employer Sponsored Coverage.

I am getting the correct forms for everyone. One hurdle down! I noticed on my 1095-B forms, line 8 is blank. I would expect since I configured the characteristic for Employer Sponsored Coverage that code B would be in this field.

What am I missing?

Thanks,
Cynthia Garza

 

[MWest]

Hello Community,

Version 1.4 of the SAP ACA User Guide for 2016 is now available in SAP Note 2359091 – Announcement Note for Affordable Care Act Information Reporting 2016.

Regards,
Margaret

 

[sukhbir_singh3]

Hello,

It seems that program RPCBENUS_ACA_PERSON_PRINT print 1095 for all employees for which data has been collected in RPCBENUS_ACA_PERSON. Therefore, keying an employee number on selection screen has no effect. This change seems to happen this year and wasn't there last year. SAP Team, can you please confirm this and guide.

Thanks

Sukhbir

[sukhbir_singh3]

Hello SAP Team,

The apartment number (address line 2) in Part 1 box 3 of 1095-C is getting repeated several times. See below. Thanks Sukhbir

 

[paynea]

Hi Sukhbir,

There is a note that fixes this: 2385047.  Apply that and see if it corrects your issue.

Good Luck

Angela

[paynea]

Good morning!

Has anyone seen an issue where a dependent row is end-dated (IT0021) - such as a divorce, and they are still showing coverage for the month it was end-dated?  My IT167 does not have the dependent marked nor did they but when we end-date the IT0021, it shows up all of a sudden for coverage for that month.  The quick fix on our end was to end-date the IT0021 to the previous end of the month and it works.

Thanks

Angela

 

[sukhbir_singh3]

 

Hello,

Angela thank you and note 2385047 did fix the issue. Still wondering how we missed it from applying as we are up to date on notes.

Thanks, Sukhbir

[MWest]

Hello Sukhbir,

We are not able to reproduce the replication that you are having for IT0006 address line 2. Please check your custom forms and enhancements. If you are using standard functionality, please open an incident under PA-PA-US-BN and we will look into it.

Regards,

Margaret

[sukhbir_singh3]

 

Hello Margaret,

There was a problem with our custom form. I regret misinformation.

Thanks

Sukhbir

[spinozapeterdsilva]

Our file was rejected for a couple of 1095 containing the special character `  in their address. Anyone else had this issue ? We did not have the issue last year since the same address went through to IRS and was accepted.

[mraffel]

Good evening!

We are encountering unexpected codes for EE's with 'waived' plans that started/ left during the year. For one EE that had a 'waived' plan for one month line 14 shows 1H for all 12 months instead of 1H for 11 month and 1A for July.

And line 16 shows 2B for the last month for all EE's with 'waived' instead of BLANK.

Anybody else seeing this?

Thanks and best regards,

Mathias Raffel

[MWest]

 

Hello Spinoza Peter,

Could you please check your enhancements and  confirm that you have applied the required SAP Notes listed in SAP Note 2359091 – Announcement Note for Affordable Care Act Information Reporting 2016? If you are using standard functionality and still have this issue, please open an incident under component PA-PA-US-BN and we will look into it.

Regards,

Margaret

[MWest]

 

Hello Mathias,

Please confirm that you have applied the required SAP Notes listed in SAP Note 2359091 – Announcement Note for Affordable Care Act Information Reporting 2016. If confirmed, please open an incident under component PA-PA-US-BN and we will look into it.

Regards,

Margaret

[sukhbir_singh3]

Hello,

Did anyone try using new selection screen parameter "Use Latest Employee Address" on RPCBENUS_ACA_PERSON_PRINT? We have some custom address sub types (ex. Z2, Z3) in addition to standard and it seems to be picking that address instead when we select this check box. Feature ADDRS for ACA is configured to look for subtype 1 & 5.

Thanks

Sukhbir

 

[MWest]

Hello Sukhbir,

Could you please open an incident under PA-PA-US-BN and let me know the incident number?

Thanks,

Margaret

[sukhbir_singh3]

 

Hello Margaret,

The incident number is 55040. Thanks Sukhbir

55040 / 2017

ACA-Address “Use Latest Employee Address"

Sent to SAP

Medium

[mraffel]

Hi Margaret,

yes, we applied all known patches/notes.

I just created the incident:

55262 / 2017 ACA 1095-C waived coverage – incorrect line 14 and 16 code

Thanks and best regards,

Mathias

[debbieb_bcps]

Hi, Peter,

 

There was an IRS presentation last May that addresses some common issues and provides links for more information - "Affordable Care Act (ACA) Information Returns (AIR) Working Group Meeting May 24, 2016 General Affordable Care Act Information Returns (AIR) Program Topics"

It can be found at:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/info_return/AIR_May_24_2016_Webinar_Presentatiion.pdf

 

This presentation specifically addresses special characters, in particular apostrophes in names, but does not mention accents (which is what the character looked like in your posting).

There was an SAP note released last year - 2312289 ACA: Special Characters Handling in XML File. Perhaps this note was applied last year, but stepped on this year when other notes or support stacks were applied, hence the issue with your file submission.

We have a test employee named O'Dowd, and the XML file correctly displays ODowd (no apostrophe, no space). The apostrophes in the addresses had the same result.

Hopefully this information will assist you,

Debbie B

[Former Member]

Hello,

We have applied all ACA notes up to 5th Update.  The issue we are having is with the form 1095-C.  the Employee name listed in Part I is not being listed in Part III under Covered Individuals.  Only the dependents are being listed.  We have checked the IRS guidelines and the employee should also be listed.  We used SAP last year for our ACA reporting and the names appeared fine for 2015.

Thanks,

Sherrye Owen

 

[spinozapeterdsilva]

Thanks Debbie..

We had the note implemented last year after we had issues with the special characters for 2015 filing. It is still there with the YE support pack last December. Checked the method cl_hrpayus_format_string=>format_xml_string ; It is not checking for  " ` " .

AIR accepted this character last year . But this year it takes exception. The user had O`Fallon as the city name since 2015...The cites keyed in as O’Fallon were formatted to O Fallon.

We sent the replacement file today after manually correcting those via PA30 and got Accepted with errors.

ErrorMessageCd	ns3:ErrorMessageTxt
1095C-012-01	If Form 1095C 'AnnualOfferOfCoverageCd' does not have a value, then all occurrences of 'MonthlyOfferCoverageGrp' (JanOfferCd through DecOfferCd) must have a value
1095C-039-01	Form 1095C 'CoveredIndividualName' and 'SSN' in 'CoveredIndividualGrp' must match the IRS database
1095C-010-01	Form 1095C 'OtherCompletePersonName' and 'SSN' in 'EmployeeInfoGrp' must match IRS database

Does anyone know more about the error 1095C-012-01 ?

Regards,

Peter

[spinozapeterdsilva]

Thanks Margaret,

We have applied all the notes. Since there were only two errors on the file, We fixed the address via PA30 and sent over the replacement file and it went through.

Regards,

Peter

[debbieb_bcps]

Hi, Sherrye,

We use two custom infotypes and the BADI to record and report Covered Individuals. We create one ACA infotype for the employee, and one for the dependents, and create new records for each year covered. At one point in my testing I got zero results for 2016 and then realized that I did not have a new employee ACA infotype created for 2016.

Where is your information for Part Three coming from for employees - IT0171? IT0167? A custom infotype? Is it possible that somewhere in your config/master data you do not have 2016 records created for the employees with 2016 dates?

Another possibility is if you are using Concurrent Employment, there were several notes released.

I know this is really reaching, but it is a weird problem, and I can't imagine what else could cause it.

Debbie B

[mraffel]

Hi Sherrye,

 

did you figure this one out? I observed the same behavior when we used an ADS that was too old. As well the continuation page of the 1095-C was incorrect. Not sure if that applies to your scenario.

Thanks and best regards,
Mathias Raffel

[Former Member]

 

Thanks for the help.  I opened a SAP Incident.  The issue we are having was due to code we are using for our surviving dependents coverage.  We do not create a new record for the surviving dependents.  These records remain under the deceased employee.  However, when we run the 1095-C form we get the deceased employee in Part I and Part III.  The code addressed this issue by removing the employee's name from Part I and Part III and only adding the dependent(s) that are covered in Part I and Part III.  This worked for 2015.  We are still debugging...hopefully we will have a resolution soon.

Thanks again for your help!

Sherrye Owen

[sukhbir_singh3]

 

Hello,

SAP support replied back to the incident with a new note to fix this issue.

SAP Note 2425438, this note is still in pilot release status. The note is doing the trick for us.

Thank you Margaret and TEAM.

Sukhbir

[debbieb_bcps]

Hi, Sherrye,

We moved dependents who are still covered via deceased employees (or  former employees who no longer have coverage) to the 1095-B form.

Because we have only 75 of these individuals we are not creating the forms in SAP; instead we are using a software called Filemaker Pro, producing "manual" forms which we mail to the IRS. (If you have less than 250 1095s you can process them manually.)

Debbie B

[Former Member]

Hi Margaret,

I did and the IRS has accepted our test.

Thanks,

Al

[Former Member]

Hi Everybody,

Our 2016 XML file was rejected with the error "The Manifest 'SoftwareId' must match an existing 'SoftwareId' in the IRS database"

The SoftwareID field in our 2016 XML Manifest file is blank.  I feel like I am missing the obvious but can someone tell me 1)Do we the issuer (we are filing our own forms) have to apply for a 2016 SoftwareID code?    2)Where do I enter the code in SAP config?

When we applied for our TCC code in 2015 there was a 2015 SoftwareID at the bottom of the letter from the IRS.  I do not recall entering the softwareID into SAP (but memory could fail me.)  I just checked our 2015 ACA XML file and it does have a softwareID, although the softwareID was slightly different than that on our letter from the IRS (last 3 digits of ID on IRS letter was 602. last three digits in 2015 XML file was 843.  Otherwise they matched.)

Any guidance appreciated!

 

Regards,

Laura Cooley

[Former Member]

The IRS guidelines for getting a TCC and passing test scenarios is pretty challenging. If possible, I would recommend sending your XML to a 3rd party to handle this as well as the corrections/rejections process. We used a service called boomtax last year and it was pretty painless.

[former_member56555]

Our XML was REJECTED due to a special character (&) in the Tax Company names shown in Part IV of the 1094-C.  The XML code generated &amp;

This is different than the special characters in names and addresses, which was fixed by a Note last year.

I looked at our last year’s XML and the &amp; passed inspection last year, but this year is causing a XML Schema Validation Failed REJECT.

Does anyone know if there is a Note for 2016 filing that addresses this?

[nancy_brister]

I am just getting started on ACA reporting for 2016. We registered with IRS last year and went through the testing process. Do we need to perform communication test again for 2016?

[Marty11]

Hi All,

We have applied the 5th update note and all ACA notes that have been released. I am generating the XML files with IRS Test file code of P for production submission. The file name that is being created when I download the files has the word "TEST" in it. This is the same result as when you have the test run box checked. Any one else having this issue?

 

Thanks,

 

Marty Pearson

 

[Former Member]

Hi Marty,

This behavior was introduced by note 2333521, to avoid erroneous submission of files generated outside of production systems. I hope it clarifies your doubt.

Best regards,
Rafael

[Marty11]

Hi Rafael,

Thanks for the clarification. I missed reviewing that note.

 

Marty

[former_member56555]

I read that you do not need to repeat the AATS Communication test that you did last year for your TCC.  If you passed last year, then you should not have to re-do for this year.

[Former Member]

 

Hi Nancy,

According to IRS Publication (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5164.pdf) if you passed the AATS for Tax Year 2015, you will not have to retest for Tax Year 2016.

Regards,

Sherrye

[mraffel]

Hi Laura,

The new SAP SW ID for 2016 was delivered with note 2385115. You can see the SW IDs in trxn se11, type group 'PUSBN'. There you should see the constants for 2015 and 2016.

Thanks and best regards,

Mathias Raffel

[debbieb_bcps]

Hi, Laura,

Re: the note that Mathias referred to - SAP Note 238115   ACA: 2016 AATS Scenarios.

The name of this note may be a bit confusing because it only refers to a test that most of us are not doing in 2016, but in an earlier posting Margaret West stated that it is not an optional note.

Debbie B

[sukhbir_singh3]

Hello,

Our both set of files got rejected with name & date of birth errors as there are two employees with one dependent each with bad data (see below). We can fix data and wish to get confirmation of following steps to follow now –

1. Run RPCBENUS_ACA_EVAL - Update File submission status to rejected


2. Run RPCBENUS_ACA_EVAL - Update Status from Lock to Unlock


3. Correct master data


4. Run RPCBENUS_ACA_PERSON only for two affected employees with unchecked Test Mode


5. Run RPCBENUS_ACA_ALE with unchecked Test Mode


6. Run RPCBENUS_ACA_PERSON_PRINT only for affected two employees with unchecked Test Mode


7. Run RPCBENUS_ACA_ALE_PRINT with unchecked Test Mode


8. Update RPCBENUS_ACA_EVAL – update status to Lock


9. Run RPCBENUS_ACA_XML with unchecked Test Mode – creates new sets of files for IRS

Part III



Thanks,

Sukhbir Singh

 

[Averil]

Hello,

Can someone please offer some insight:

We would like to exclude all the employees that do no need to received an ACA form.  Based on the IRS documentation if the employee was in a limited non-assessment period for the whole year we do not need to issue them a 1095-C form.  The code on the 1095-C is 1H for the entire year.  Is there a way I can set these employee to SKP after the code has been set?

I do see the BadI HRBENUS_B_ACA_PERSON_EXCLUDE but this BadI does not have the offer codes in and also does not have all the info, for example, IT 0041, to determine if the employee was in a limited non-assessment period for the entire year.

Averil

[Former Member]

Does anyone have any ideas on fixing errors 1095C-039-01 and 1095C-010-01? Looks like it is errors relating to the employee having their name one way with their employer and another with the IRS.

 

Robyn

 

[Michael_Chohrac]

 

So are you saying we have to open our production client to changes in order to completely implement this SAP note? Our Basis team is very hesitant to do that without good reason.

Regards,
Michael

[former_member207070]

Joelle,

Have you found any resolution to this?  We have a similar issue.   We have FTE that are Interns working > 30 hrs per week.  They are not offerred Coverage.   We have not found a suitable 4980H code to use, so we left the value blank..  Last year, plan year 2015  the IRS accepted this.  This year, plan year 2016 the IRS fails the xml if 4980H code is blank.

Does anyone have a solution for this?

Thank you,

Mike P.

[former_member207070]

Hello all,

Has anyone dealt with XML file failure due to having blank Safe Harbor values?  I saw that Joelle Wilson posted an inquiry back on Jan 13,2017 but  have not seen any solutions posted.  We are having a similar issue.   We have FTE Interns working > 30 hrs per week, that are not offerred coverage.  We are unable to determine a suitable 4980H code during their employment so we left this value blank.  This was acceptable by IRS last year.  This year the xml file fails. Has anyone else created a solution for this?

Thank you,

MIke Persson

[former_member284017]

Any help will be much appreciated.  Our original file was rejected for format errors with line 16.  We implemented note 2410470 to correct this issue.  After some false starts we are trying to follow the steps to create a replacement file.  Per instructions in the SAP ACA User Guide, if no employee data issues run HRBENUS_ACA_ALE with Force replacement.  This failed saying there was no data.  So we started at the beginning and ran test runs beginning with HRBENUS_ACA_PERSON.  We have a replacement run ID but our test file that we created is missing 55 records from the original file.

I am sure we have missed a step somewhere.  Our only known issue is the file format.  Please provide additional instructions with as much detail as possible.

 

Thanks in advance.

Debbie S.

 

 

[former_member284017]

 

The file is failing not due to you using blanks but due to a format issue for the field.  Try note 2410470 which specifically mentions this issue.

Regards,

Debbie S.

 

[MWest]

Hello Debbie,

For Replacements, please see SAP Note 2419025 ACA: 2016 6th Update SAP Note, which is required for the Replacement Process when the transmissions or submissions have been rejected by IRS AIR. For up-to-date information on the planned delivery date, please see SAP Note 2359091.

Regards,

Margaret