Understanding Clients’ IRS Play-or-Pay Penalty Assessment Letter

Recently, clients may have contacted you with questions about Letter 226-J, which they would have received from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during or after the end of 2017. These letters stated that your clients might owe money, either because the IRS didn’t offer health coverage to enough of its full-time employees, or because the health coverage that it did offer wasn’t affordable (or minimum value).