When Do 1095-C Forms Need to Be Mailed to Employees?

For the 2025 calendar year, you must furnish Form 1095-C to each full-time employee by March 2, 2026.¹ That is the 1095-C deadline for employees, and unlike the deadline for filing with the IRS, it cannot be extended any further. Missing it triggers per-return penalties that grow the longer the statements stay out, starting at $60 and climbing to $340 or more.

Why the Deadline Is March 2 and Not January 31

Under 26 U.S.C. § 6056, every Applicable Large Employer must give each full-time employee a written statement showing the health coverage offered during the prior calendar year.² The statute sets that base deadline at January 31 of the year after the reporting year. A permanent automatic 30-day extension moves the actual due date to March 2. For the 2025 reporting year, that means March 2, 2026.¹

If March 2 lands on a weekend or federal holiday in a later year, the deadline shifts to the next business day. No additional extension is available. The IRS instructions state plainly that no further extensions will be granted for furnishing 1095-C statements to employees.¹ The Form 8809 extension that many employers rely on covers only the IRS filing side, not delivery to workers.

How to Deliver the Form to Employees

The default method is physical delivery. Mail the statement to the employee’s last known permanent address, or hand it over in person. If no permanent address is on file, a temporary address is acceptable. Keep proof of postage. It is the simplest way to show the IRS you met the deadline if a question comes up later.

Electronic Delivery Requires Specific Consent

You can send Form 1095-C electronically, but only after the employee affirmatively consents to receive it that way. A general payroll consent will not do. The consent has to relate specifically to Form 1095-C in electronic format. Employees can consent on paper or electronically, such as by email, though a paper consent has to be confirmed electronically before you deliver the form that way.¹ Once you have that consent, you can email the form or post it on a company site and notify the employee.

The Qualifying Offer Alternative Statement

If you made a Qualifying Offer to an employee for all 12 months of the year, you can furnish a simplified statement instead of the full Form 1095-C. A Qualifying Offer means minimum-value coverage where the employee’s share of the lowest-cost self-only premium did not exceed a set percentage of the federal poverty line, with coverage also offered to spouse and dependents.³ The shorter statement explains that the employee received a Qualifying Offer and is therefore not eligible for the premium tax credit. The full 1095-C still has to be filed with the IRS regardless of which method you use for the employee copy.

Penalties for Missing the Employee Deadline

Failure to furnish a correct payee statement falls under 26 U.S.C. § 6722, which is a separate penalty from the one that applies to late IRS filings.⁴ Both use the same per-statement tiers, and both can hit the same employer for the same year. For statements due in 2026, the amounts are:⁵

$60 per statement if corrected within 30 days of the deadline
$130 per statement if corrected after 30 days but by August 1
$340 per statement if not corrected by August 1, or never furnished
$680 per statement, or 10 percent of the amount required to be reported (whichever is greater), for intentional disregard

Annual caps on total penalties apply to the first three tiers and vary based on the employer’s average gross receipts, with lower caps for small businesses. There is no annual cap for intentional disregard.⁵ For an employer with hundreds or thousands of full-time employees, a missed furnishing deadline can produce a very large bill. Getting statements out even a few weeks late, but before that 30-day window closes, keeps each one at $60 rather than $340.

Fixing an Error After You’ve Furnished the Form

If you find a mistake on a statement you have already given to an employee, prepare a new Form 1095-C with the correct information and furnish it to the affected individual. If the form was furnished but not yet filed with the IRS, write or print “CORRECTED” on the new employee copy. Do not check the “CORRECTED” box on the form itself unless you are also correcting a version that has already been filed with the IRS.¹

If you used the Qualifying Offer alternative statement for that employee, you do not need to furnish a corrected 1095-C to them, though the corrected form still has to reach the IRS. Acting quickly matters. A correction furnished within 30 days of the original deadline keeps the per-statement penalty at $60 instead of $340.

Two Deadlines You Shouldn’t Confuse With This One

The date covered above is only the deadline for getting the form to your employee. Filing copies with the IRS is a separate obligation, with a paper deadline of March 2, 2026, and an electronic deadline of March 31, 2026, for the 2025 reporting year.¹ That filing deadline can be extended by 30 days with a timely Form 8809. The employee-furnishing deadline cannot.

Several states and the District of Columbia have their own individual health insurance mandates and require separate reporting to residents, often using the same federal 1094-C and 1095-C forms. Deadlines and specific rules vary by state. If you have employees in a state with its own mandate, meeting the federal March 2 date does not necessarily satisfy the state one, and failing at the state level can carry its own penalties on top of the federal ones.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C (2025)
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6056 – Certain Employers Required to Report on Health Insurance Coverage
3
Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers About Information Reporting by Employers on Form 1094-C and Form 1095-C
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6722 – Failure to Furnish Correct Payee Statements
5
Internal Revenue Service. Information Return Penalties