The proposed regulations on the employer shared responsibility clarify that employers must cover the dependents (i.e., children to age 26 but not spouses) of FT employees. But the penalties under both 4980H(a) and (b) only apply to the extent that the employer receives a Section 1411 Certification that a FT employee obtains a subsidy/credit for obtaining coverage on the Exchange.
Despite the coverage mandate, it is still not clear to me that there is any penalty if an employer provides affordable coverage to all its FT employees but not to their dependents because no FT is eligible for coverage on the Exchange.
What am I missing?