Note: None of this should be taken as legal or tax advice.
As part of the
Affordable Care Act (ACA), employers are required to report the cost of health benefits coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan.
Originally, W-2 reporting was intended to start with the 2011 tax year. However, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determined that employers needed additional time to update their payroll systems, so it made reporting optional for the 2011 tax year. Reporting will be required starting with the 2012 tax year, for which reporting begins in January 2013.
For employers that issue fewer than 250 W-2 forms, reporting will continue to be optional for the 2012 tax year and will only become mandatory for the 2013 tax year (for which reporting begins January. 2014).
The IRS issued a new notice this week,
Notice 2012-9 that restates and amends the interim guidance.
Note: This should not be taken as tax or legal advice
The IRS has released the
2011 version of Form W-2 that includes the addition of new codes for reporting the cost of employer-sponsored health coverage.
According to the Instructions, additional reporting guidance (including instructions on how to calculate the "aggregate cost" of coverage) will be available on the IRS Website later this year.
Note: This should not be taken as tax or legal advice.
Earlier this year, we provided a
step by step guide to calculating the Small Business Health Care Tax credit by hand.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) of North Carolina recently launched a new
small business tax calculator to assist small business owners in identifying the tax credits they are eligible for under health care reform legislation. Small business owners can use the tax calculator to determine their estimated tax credit for 2010-2013, and for 2014.
Last week, the
IRS released final guidance for small employers eligible to claim the new small business health care tax credit for the 2010 tax year
including a one-page form small employers will use to claim the credit for the 2010 tax year.
Note: This should not be taken as tax or legal advice HRAs, POPs and tax free individual health insurance are 100% allowed in Connecticut if administered the correct way.
Nothing in Connecticut insurance code restricts an employer (small or large) from offering HRAs and POPs that reimburse individual health insurance plans. HRAs and POPs are federal plans that are not regulated by the Connecticut Department of Insurance.
However, there exists confusion with regard to the state insurance code that regulates insurance companies insuring small employers (i.e. companies with 2-50 employees). It is important to realize that the insurance code applies to insurance companies and does not restrict a small employer from offering employees the ability to reimburse themselves for individual health insurance costs tax free.
According to
Connecticut Insurance Code Section 38a-566:
"Sec. 38a-566. Health insurance plans or insurance arrangements covering employees of a small employer. Trusts. Trade associations. Self-employed individuals. (a) Any individual or group health insurance plan or any insurance arrangement shall be subject to the provisions of sections 12-201, 12-211, 12-212a and 38a-564 to 38a-572, inclusive, if it provides health insurance or is an insurance arrangement covering one or more employees of a small employer and if any one of the following conditions are met:
(1) Any portion of the premium or benefits is paid by a small employer or any covered individual is reimbursed, whether through wage adjustments or otherwise, by a small employer for any portion of the premium; or
(2) The health insurance plan or arrangement is treated by the employer or any of the covered individuals as part of a plan or program for the purposes of Section 162 or Section 106 of the United States Internal Revenue Code." |
Individual policies reimbursed by
ZanePOP cannot be made subject to the requirements of Section 38a-566 because, with ZanePOP:
- The employer does not pay a portion of the premium or benefits for the individual health insurance policy.
- The employer does not reimburse the employee for any portion of the premium.
- The employer/employees do not treat specific individual health insurance plans as a part of a plan or program for purposes of Section 106 or 162.
The non-applicability of Section 38a-566 to individual policies reimbursed by ZanePOP should be straightforward. Please post questions in the comment section.
Similarly, individual policies reimbursed by
ZaneHRA cannot be made subject to the requirements of Section 38a-566 because, with ZaneHRA:
- The employer does not pay a portion of the premium or benefits for the individual health insurance policy;
- The employer does not limit reimbursement to specific individual health insurance premiums and never knowingly or directly reimburses individual health insurance premiums;
- The employer/employees do not treat specific individual health insurance plans as a part of a plan or program for purposes of Section 106 or 162.The ZaneHRA itself is the "Plan", not the health care items reimbursed by the "Plan". In other words, ZaneHRAs are qualified ERISA- and HIPAA-compliant employee welfare benefit plans. However the medical items (e.g. pharmacy, insurance policy costs, doctor visits, etc.) for which each employee chooses to seek reimbursement from their ZaneHRA, are not part of an employee welfare benefit plan.
The federal government has guidelines for employers who want to allow insurers or their representatives access to their employees without triggering ERISA plan status and the associated liabilities. ZaneHRA is designed to comply with these guidelines.
Compliance includes the following restrictions on the actions of employers:
- Employers must not be involved in employees' decision to purchase individual health insurance, or their decision on which insurer or plan to use. They must not get involved in any negotiations with an insurance carrier over price or benefits of individual health insurance plans, and must not provide employees with claim forms or other materials related to their individual health insurance policies.
- Employers may not directly pay premiums on individual health insurance policies. They must not receive any compensation from an insurance carrier in connection with an employee's individual health insurance policy. Employers must not become involved in any claim dispute between an employee and an insurance carrier; all inquiries must be directed to the insurer.
To comply with point (1) above, while still making contributions to an HRA that can reimburse for individual health insurance premiums, employers must follow these additional guidelines:
- Employers must not pressure employees to use the money in their HRA to pay for individual insurance coverage. Employers may require HRA participants to have health insurance coverage to participate in their HRA provided this requirement is waived for participants medically unqualified to obtain health insurance (e.g. rejected, uprated, excluded).
- In addition to reimbursing for health insurance premiums, employers should also allow the use of HRA funds for qualified medical expenses.
- Employers must limit their role to simply reimbursing qualified medical expenses as directed by the ZaneHRA plan.
Note: This should not be taken as tax or legal advice. Effective yesterday,
new legislation will allow self-employed individuals to deduct their health insurance costs as a business expense for payroll tax purposes. This payroll deduction only applies to 2010 tax returns.
This one-year tax deduction is expected to save self-employed business owners approximately $456 to $968 in taxes this year.
According to the
National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE), self‐employed business owners that meet all of the following requirements can take advantage of this new tax deduction:
- Files an IRS Form 1040 Schedule C tax form or Schedule E with earned income ‐ this includes sole proprietors, single member LLCs, and sole owner S‐Corporations
- Pays self‐employment taxes via IRS Form 1040 Schedule SE
- Pays for individual or family health coverage in 2010
