Run the safe-harbor test on every tier before open enrollment.

The test takes an afternoon and tells you whether your 2027 contributions are affordable under at least one safe harbor.

Do it before you publish rates to employees. Send us your renewal and we will give you a second opinion in writing.

What to know

Three steps.

Find the lowest-cost plan

Identify the lowest-cost self-only plan that provides minimum value, because that is the plan the test is run on.

Run each safe harbor

Test the employee contribution against the 10.22% line using W-2 wages, rate of pay and the poverty-line limit, for each employee group you can document.

Record the result

Save the calculation and the date, and note which safe harbor you will report. The record is what you show if the IRS asks.

Keep reading.

The guide

The 2027 ACA Affordability Percentage: Employer Guide

What the IRS changed for 2027 and what to check before open enrollment. Back to the guide.

Next step

Document your safe harbor.

Sources

Where these figures and rules come from.

Sources

Figures and rules

IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-26 (2027 affordability percentage of 10.22%, up from 9.96% for 2026) and Rev. Proc. 2026-22 (2027 employer shared responsibility payment amounts). 26 CFR §54.4980H-5(e)(2). This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Let’s Get to Work

Send us your renewal.

Four documents — the renewal letter, the plan summary, the contribution split by tier and enrolled counts by tier. We’ll come back with a competitive read, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier.

Start the Review 248.370.8853

Where does your group fall?

2 to 50 employees

250 to 999 employees

Above 50 employees