Employer benefits, opportunities and requirements under the Affordable Care Act are
Generally, an employer with 50 or more full-time employees or equivalents is considered an applicable large employer. The vast majority of employers fall below the workforce size threshold for applicable large employers, or ALEs. A complete list of resources and news for ALEs is on the IRS at the Applicable Large Employer Information Center on IRS.gov/aca.
Companies that have:
- Fifty or more full-time equivalent employees, and thus are ALEs, will need to file an annual information return reporting whether and what health insurance was offered to full-time employees. In addition, an ALE is subject to the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions.
- Fifty or fewer employees generally are eligible to buy coverage through the Small Business Health Options Program. More information is at HealthCare.gov.
- Fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees may be eligible for a Small Business Health Care Tax Credit to help cover the cost of providing coverage.
Regardless of size, all employers that provide self-insured health coverage to their employees must file an annual return reporting certain information for each employee they cover.