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Well, it sure ain't MY fault, either! And, I'm taking hours and hours of CE on topics like ACA and Repair vs. Cap Regs and expect to do a lot of re-reading of my texts over the next two months and have already been having conversations with select clients and will be pouring over biz returns over the next two months before clients are bringing in their 2014 info. They WILL pay for my knowledge and thoroughness. When needed, Form 3115 will cost a lot. Even my examination to determine that 3115 is NOT needed will cost something. And, all the ACA forms will have a fee, even the box to be checked that no further forms are needed. It's not the time it will take me to check the box that I'll charge for, it's my knowledge to know what to do if I check the box or don't check the box.

Sam's Club Offers Insurance Through HIX Because Members Wanted It By Brian M. Kalish December 5, 2014 inShare4 Sam’s Club, the big-box members-only warehouse, decided to offer health insurance to its customers through a private health care exchange because those small business owner-members were asking for it. In October, the retail chain said it was partnering with Aetna to offer health insurance to members through a private exchange to small businesses. “One thing we pride ourselves on at Sam’s is listening to our members,” said John Luebker, Sam’s senior director of H&W Rx merchandising and managing markets during Employee Benefit News’ Private Healthcare Exchanges Conference in New York City Thursday. From those surveys, the two things small business owners requested was getting the right products and second was help with their insurance. For Aetna, working with Sam’s presented “a great opportunity for us to partner and provide insurance to small groups,” said Cathy Gobes, Aetna’s head of private exchanges. “We are in the small group business already, we have a small group exchange and we thought we could private solutions right off the top that would help make a difference.” Although the marketplace is co-branded as powered by Aetna, Sam’s Club is not getting paid in the process and Gobes said it was key that Sam’s Club not be listed as an agent, not licensed, nor selling the product. “We had lots of conversation with our lawyers to make sure that is the case and there is nothing [tying Sam’s Club] to the insurance,” she said. “We have a small share of the [small business] market and this is an opportunity for us to reach another population. “Some might use brokers today,” she added. “We are not trying to work around that, [instead we are] trying to provide a solution.” Sam’s promoted this new offering through a variety of means that they use to reach their members including e-mail and direct mail. Further, they educated their optical and pharmacy staff since they were getting questions by curious small business owners. The program was piloted in Florida in July, launched in October in 18 states, which expanded to 21 states on Monday. So far, Aetna has seen about 2,500 requests for information and 1,000 requests for a quote, of which 500 were qualified. To date, 150 proposals have been sent out with an average employee population of five.

Try any of your professional organizations. I use the group plan from NAEA.

At this point, recognizing that factors may change, I think I like the idea of segregating, on the client's invoice, the time spent on ACA consideration. Mentioning this is the appointment letter and/or engagement letter would also seem like a wise idea.

The IRS is doing NO verification for 2014 for any of the questions. This from Karen Hawkins directly. Additionally, no preparer penalties for tax year 2014 either. For 2014 there is no need to go any further when the client says they have MEC. There is no verification method, so nothing for me to keep records of. 2015 tax year will be entirely different.