by Rachel Sapinsley | Mar 30, 2016 | ACA |
Affordable Care Act Reporting: IRS Q&A As we come to the end of March, most people have taxes on their mind. If you are one of the lucky ones, your taxes are done. As benefits advisors, we get a lot of questions about the new ACA reporting and how it affects people’s taxes. The following 15 questions and answers from the IRS provide a good summary of what people are asking. 1. Will I receive any new health care tax forms in 2016 to help me complete my tax returns? Yes, in 2016 you will receive a form very similar to your W-2 or 1099. The new forms are: 1095 A – Health Insurance Marketplace Statement – due by February 1 – comes from the Marketplace. 1095 B – Health Coverage – Due by March 31 – comes from Health Insurance provider 1095 C – Employer Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage – Due by March 31 – comes from the employer if the employer is an applicable large employer (more than 50 full time employees) 2. When will I receive these forms? 1095 A – February 1 1095 B – March 31 1095 C – March 31 3. Do I have to wait to file until I receive these forms? If you are expecting a 1095 A, wait until you get it to file. If you are expecting 1095 B or 1095 C, you do not have to wait to get the forms to file. 4. What do I do with these forms? 1095 A – use the information for your tax return – the form helps...
by James Benthusen | Apr 29, 2015 | Uncategorized |
Employment practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) Employment practices liability insurance covers you against claims made by your employees or candidates for employment that you did not hire. No matter the size of you company you are subject to federal, state and local laws regarding employment practices. Large companies are generally the target for these types of lawsuits but 40% of the lawsuits involve companies that employee 1-15 employees. Some examples of what these lawsuits can stem from are claims of: Sexual harassment Workplace bullying Discrimination Wrongful termination Breach of employment contracts Emotional stress The good news is you can take steps to reduce your risk of being involved in these types of suits. By establishing guidelines for management and employees you will not only be protecting your business but making it a great place to work. Employee handbooks are a great way to establish best practices for your management and employees. The handbook should consist of ways to communicate with management on harassment and other grievances. There needs to be an established procedure for dealing with employee discipline as well. Handbooks should also contain all of the federal, state and local regulatory compliance information as well. As a sign of the times you should also address your policy on social media and the workplace. There should be a requirement for all employees to read the handbook and acknowledge that they have read the handbook. There should be a record kept of that acknowledgement in case any future need may arise. For employment you should develop clear and defined job descriptions. These descriptions should include all of the required capabilities to...
by Yolanda Mercado | Mar 29, 2015 | Uncategorized |
Yes, you can. One of our clients who currently offers an HRA wanted to add an HSA to their benefit program. Before we go into the mechanics, let’s define an HRA and HSA . An HRA is a Health Care Reimbursement Account which is “funded” solely by the employer. The account is not actually “funded” but is set up as “pay as you go” to reimburse employee claims. Employees cannot contribute to an HRA and the reimbursed expenses are not considered taxable income for the employee. An HRA can only be implemented along side a group health plan – no stand alone HRA’s allowed. An HSA is a Health Savings Account. This account belongs to the employee but can be funded by either the employer or the employee or both. You can only participate in an HSA plan if you have a high deductible health plan. HSA’s have annual pre-tax contribution limits. For 2015, the maximum contribution is $3,350 for singles and $6,650 for families. Here’s the trick to using an HSA when an HRA is available. Before you can submit expenses for HRA reimbursements, you must meet the minimum annual HRA deductible which is $1,300 single and $2,600 family for 2015. For example, in 2015 I contribute $3,350 pre tax to my HSA for single coverage. I have a medical procedure which costs $2,300. I have to pay the first $1,300 to satisfy the HSA minimum deductible and then I can submit the remaining $1,000 of charges to my HRA for reimbursement. I am still able to keep the balance of $2,050 in my HSA for 2015. Although it...
by Yolanda Mercado | Mar 13, 2015 | ACA |
No – You cannot and here’s why. Per the ACA (Affordable Care Act), an employer may no longer pay for individual employees medical plans. According to the ACA, paying for these individual plans somehow is considered an employer plan and therefore must comply with ACA regulations. This is a head scratcher for most employers, especially small employers who just want to help out their employees. Last month the IRS released Notice 2015-17 which allows for transition relief. There seems to be a lot of that going around where the ACA is concerned. According to this notice, employers CAN pay for the individual employee premiums from Jan 1, 2015 through June 30, 2015 without paying a penalty. Please note that this transition relief does not include stand alone HRA’s (Health Reimbursement Accounts). The relief may be small but the penalties are large. The IRS penalty for employers who continue to pay the individual health premiums after the June 30, 2015 transition relief period will face fines of $100 per employee per day! If you have 10 employees at $100 per day -this is a substantial penalty. The good news is that Retiree Only plans are not subject to the ACA. An employer can still pay for Medicare Part B or Part D premiums through the company. So beware if you are one of those employers paying for individual policies – it is time to wind it down or be prepared to pay the...
by Yolanda Mercado | Jul 14, 2014 | ACA, Individual Employer Plans, Large Employer Plans |
What’s a smaller employer to do? The Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) has defined a small employer as a company with less than 50 full time employees. If you are that small business, you then need to determine are you a small business with less than 24 full time employees? Because if you are, you may qualify for a tax credit known as the Business Health Care Tax Credit. Why does this matter? The Tax Credit can be worth up to 50% of the employers’ contribution to employee health premium. To be eligible, you need to meet the following criteria: 1) employees annual wages are less than $50,000, 2) the business pays a uniform amount of at least 50% of the employees self only premium costs AND 3) you purchase your group plan through SHOP. SHOP? Another bonus of the ACA is that we in the benefits field have so many more acronym’s to learn! SHOP is the Small Business Health Options Program. This is the marketplace for small business health plans. How do you get SHOP coverage? By calling your insurance advisor. That’s us, FGMK Insurance. We are an approved broker by the Healthcare.gov marketplace and can get the quotes for you. We will begin by helping you gather the necessary information, fill out all of the forms so your company can determine if you qualify for the tax credit. We will evaluate pricing and develop options so you can select the most appropriate plan or plans for your employees. But the most important thing we will do is communicate all of this to your employees for you! Contact us now to...
