PCORI Fee for Plan Years Ending in 2025

Two rates, one deadline. If your plan or policy year ended in 2025, your PCORI fee is $3.47 per covered life when the year ended January through September, and $3.84 when it ended October through December. Either way, the fee was due on the second-quarter Form 720 by Friday, July 31, 2026. That date has passed, so this guide covers both checking what you filed and catching up if you didn't.

Which rate and line for your 2025 plan year?

Find the month your year ended. Then pick the line based on whether you're an insurer or a self-insured plan sponsor.

A calendar-year plan ends December 31, so a 2025 calendar-year plan is a $3.84 plan on line 133(d). Some people expect $3.47 here because that was the rate on last year's return. That's the wrong comparison. Last year's calendar-year plan (ended December 31, 2024) was the $3.47 plan.

Two examples using 2025 figures

Both employers and their numbers are made up.

• June 30, 2025 plan year. A self-insured plan with 180 average covered lives: 180 × $3.47 = $624.60 on line 133(c).
• December 31, 2025 plan year. A self-insured plan with 180 average covered lives: 180 × $3.84 = $691.20 on line 133(d). Same headcount, $66.60 more.

If the same employer sponsored both, as two plans with different plan years, it would report each fee on its own line and combine them in the "Tax" column for IRS No. 133: $624.60 + $691.20 = $1,315.80. The two plans can't be merged into one for the count, because the IRS requires the same sponsor and the same plan year for that. Run your numbers in the PCORI fee calculator, and use our covered lives guide if you still need the count.

What should you do if you missed July 31, 2026?

File the return. The fee doesn't move forward to another year or another quarter. Here is the order to work in.

1. Confirm you owed it. A fully insured plan with no HRA and no other self-insured coverage puts the fee on the insurer. You may have nothing to do. Our HRA and self-insured guide helps here.
2. Check whether a June 2026 Form 720 was filed. If you never filed one, prepare it now. If you filed one for other taxes without the fee, you don't file a second return. Corrections go on Form 720-X, as the next section explains.
3. Use the quarter ending June 2026. Put the fee on that return. The current IRS e-file rules allow an amount on IRS No. 133 only when the quarter ending is June 2025 or June 2026. Don't add it to a September or December quarter return.
4. Pay the balance due. IRS Direct Pay, EFTPS (select Q2), and check or money order with Form 720-V are all listed in the instructions. If you can't pay in full, the instructions point to an online installment agreement, available if you owe $25,000 or less in combined tax, penalties, and interest as a business and have filed all required returns.
5. Deal with any notice when it comes. The instructions say that if you receive a penalty notice after you file, you reply to it with an explanation, and the IRS decides whether you meet reasonable-cause criteria. Don't send an explanation with the return.

The Form 720 instructions don't give the penalty amounts for a late PCORI return. Our PCORI late filing penalty guide covers that subject, and we won't promise any outcome on a penalty, since that decision belongs to the IRS.

What if you filed but something was wrong?

Form 720-X, the Amended Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return, is the only route the IRS describes for correcting a filed return, whether the mistake raises or lowers the fee. Three typical cases:

• Wrong rate. A December 2025 plan reported at $3.47. The IRS names this kind of error directly as a Form 720-X correction.
• Wrong count. The lives were understated or overstated.
• Fee left off. Your June 2026 return covered another tax but omitted IRS No. 133. Column (d) on Form 720-X would show the tax as originally reported.

You can't reduce next year's fee to recover an overpayment. EasyFile720 can produce a completed, validated Form 720-X PDF for you to print, sign, and mail, and our Form 720-X guide describes how that works and how the form is filled in. Amendments carry their own one-time service fee, shown before you pay.

Finishing a 2025 plan year filing online

If you still owe the return, your next step is our PCORI fee filing page. EasyFile720 is an IRS-authorized e-file provider. You enter your own covered lives, the rates for the return are built in, and the math is calculated for you. It is free to create an account and you pay $39.95 when you file, so confirm the June 2026 quarter is available for your filing before you pay. You sign electronically and get the IRS acknowledgment once the return is accepted. For a paper return instead, the mailing address in the instructions is Internal Revenue Service, Ogden, UT 84201-0009. The sooner you file your PCORI fee online or by mail, the sooner the missing return is off your list.

FAQ

Sources: Form 720 (Rev. June 2026); Instructions for Form 720 (Rev. June 2026); Form 720-X (Rev. June 2026); IRS PCORI Questions and Answers; 720 Business Rules Publication 2026Q4 v1.0. General information, not tax advice. Confirm how the rules apply to you with a qualified advisor or the IRS.