Application Prototyping in Excel - 1095-C

For those of us living in the USA, last year presented us with a major tax code change. To avoid penalties, individuals must prove they have health insurance. Since many people get health coverage from their employers, the government requires employers provide employees with evidence of coverage via a form 1095-C.. Announcements for this change caught many by surprise. Because of wide spread confusion the government indicated this year will be 'dress-rehearsal' for form 1095-C. Employers must still create one but accuracy problems won't cause penalties. Thus, we needed a quick and not so perfect (dirty) app to produce 1095-C forms.

Using XL made sense. XL allows us to download data we have from our payroll systems. XL also allows us to add data that our payroll systems don't have, such as special government codes without having to change our backend system which is expensive and time consuming. XL can merge its data with MS Word where we can place a scanned copy of the 1095-C and layer over it merge fields to print the required forms for every employee.