Background
The purpose of this report is to clarify how to account for a more than 2% shareholder S Corporation Owners’ Health insurance from a payroll perspective, in light of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace reforms. Additionally, for the small business S corporation; is it possible to assist employee’s with health insurance premiums without running afoul of marketplace reforms? The internet is rampant with conflicting advice on these seemingly simple questions. The most recent guidance from the IRS (notice 2015-17) is more of a reprieve on penalties, rather than guidance. Additionally, the June 30, 2015 deadline for reprieves has passed; which has accountants and taxpayers waiting for additional “guidance” while sorting out
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According to IRC § 1372 any person owning more than 2% of the S Corporation, or holding more than 2% of the voting power, is considered a partner of the business. What! The S Corporation shareholders are now a partners? Once it is understood that an S-Corporation is a hybrid between: a sole proprietorship, a partnership and a corporation, it all starts to make more sense.
One of the biggest considerations that a S Corporation has in regard to payments to shareholders is that the IRS requires shareholders to be paid reasonable consideration, in the form of wages, for services provided; and thus, are treated as an employee for general payroll purposes. (IRS.com, 2016). However, the same Shareholder is treated as a partner in regard to fringe benefits. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) classifies health care benefits as fringe benefits. Therefore, they must be taxed as such, unless excluded as per current laws.
As a partner, health insurance payments by the corporation on behalf of the shareholder must be, as a fringe benefit, included in wages for the year that the benefit is received as per IRC §1372. Recall from above, that health insurance is not a tax-free fringe benefit. This means that any health insurance premiums paid for by the corporation must be treated as wages subject to income taxes; however the law does allow benefits to be excludable from social security, Medicare (FICA) and federal unemployment taxes (FUTA). There is some
* Taxes are paid through the corporation on a corporate tax return. It is separate from the owner’s income taxes, commonly referred to as shareholders. Shareholders also include income or losses on stocks sold or dividends earned on their yearly individual tax return.
• Control: An S- Corporation only allowed a small number of shareholders and the shareholders must be
Many small business owners simply can’t afford to pay for part of insurance so they are forced to find a way out. Some businesses have cut employee hours and fired workers. This way, they don’t have to pay employee benefits. Others have decided that it is more cost effective to pay the fine for not insuring employees than it is to pay for employee insurance.
Large corporations typically self-insure paying their employees' medical bills and hiring insurers to administer health benefits, while small businesses purchase group health coverage from insurers and face cost-increasing regulations as they go through the annual ritual of renewing their coverage. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) says that an employer must provide full-time employees with comprehensive health insurance for businesses that have over a certain number of employees. While businesses under a certain number of employees won't get penalized for not offering coverage. This is important because if you are a small business employee with very little take home, this gives you the option to allot that money for coverage or not. The cash value
Employers have seen an increase in number of members due do the coverage for children up to 26 years old. There has been the removal of lifetime limits and restrictions on annual spending have been removed, which causes companies to pay more for employees requiring expensive and chronic coverage (Spivak, 2014). After the passing of the ACA, there is no requirement for employers to provide health benefits to their workers, but certain large employers may have a penalty if there is no affordable coverage available. There will be a penalty for employers that does not offer coverage or doesn't meet the minimum value and affordability standards. Companies that have at least 50 full time employees could be affected by these penalties (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2018). Companies that have less than 50 full time employees could have a hard time finding a company insurance due to affordability. Insurance companies and employers must come to a decision about new plans that could benefit everyone. Employers and employees may have to pay higher premiums due to expanded coverage. All health insurance plans must cover the 10 essential benefits, which helps with prevention and covering care. The ACA has created an individual mandate, which ordered everyone to obtain health insurance where another penalty could take
Employers are able to get a tax break for offering health coverage to their employees
The Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 and signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010. The vision was to reform the health-care in America worked and dramatically decreases the number of uninsured individuals. President Barack Obama campaigned aggressively under the phrase’ “Yes We Can”. In the end “Yes he did” get the health-care reform legislation past and set into motion the overall of health insurance decades in the making. Many of the major objectives of the Affordable Care Act were setup to be implemented over time, most of which will be in place by 2016. Until then it is somewhat difficult to determine the true impact of the Affordable Care Act on individuals and their medical care and the financial impact of the costs. As,
The Patients’ Choice Act gives the American people opportunity to choose the health care plan that met the individual health needs. Obama admirations under the Democratic Party felt the need for a different health care reform, The Affordable Care Act (ACA). To justify this health care reform the Democratic Party implied that the health care crisis is caused by the uninsured and that everyone had a right to health care. Under the Patients’ Choice Act the American people keeps their freedom whether to have health care or not, but the ACA has a personal mandate that requires individuals to buy or carry health care insurance or face a fine (tax). To fund ACA will cost more than freedom, it’ll cost the individual American people and the government more money than The Patients’ Choice Act. The American people need affordable health care but not under government control.
The United States of America government’s healthcare marketplace is a large e-government initiative which was a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed in 2010. Under this act, all Americans are required to have health insurance except in the case where individuals are exempt or make a shared responsibility payment. The aims of the of the ACA was to increase the quality and affordability of health insurance, lower the
Based on the research report Monitoring the Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Employers by Blavin, Bowen, Blumberg, Buettgens, Gadsden, Rifkin, (2014) It was stated that “employer based coverage premiums became higher during 2002 and 2012 the rate exceeded NHEA growth.” Companies with less than “fifty
A few key provisions employers need to be concerned with is “firms that employ fifty or more people who work thirty or more hours per week but do not offer them health insurance will have to pay a penalty to the government” (Snell, Morris, & Bohlander, 2013, p. 484). Also, “firms with 200 full-time employees will be required to automatically enroll new full-time employees in their healthcare plans” (Snell, Morris, & Bohlander, 2013, p. 484). Employers must similarly offer coverage to their employee’s children until they turn twenty-six years old. “Managers are also concerned
Challenges for the employer and the situation include the issues related to government taxes such as Medicare and Social Security. In addition, the employer is bound to pay reasonable benefits to all of its employees equally. If the utility does not do this, and it is determined that Karen is an employee of the utility, and Karen is a legitimate case against the utility to recover the lost benefits. To rectify this situation, the utility should clarify exactly what Karen’s individual situation is, and hopefully with the help of a tax advisor. The advisor may suggest that Karen's work responsibilities be clearly delineated and that she be afforded the requisite benefits. Lastly, all necessary taxes, including payroll amounts for charges such as Medicare and Social Security need to be paid in full.
Beginning in the year 2018, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will implement a nondeductible excise tax, namely the Cadillac Taxon, on all employers as well as health insurance issuers, and other entities administering health care plan coverage (Marathas, 2015). Under the new excise tax, an employer or health insurer offering a plan that costs more than $10,200 for an individual and $27,500 for a family would meant that the firm would be required to pay a 40% excise tax on the amount that exceeds the threshold (Wojcik, 2013). Supporters of the tax argue that employers need an updated view on cost control, basically, meaning they believe that, currently, many employees abuse their benefits and that by forcing consumers into paying a share of this cost, that they will be less likely to overuse or abuse their health care (Marathas, 2015). Those opposing the tax believe that it dishonestly “hollows out” and “slashes” employee health benefits (MDeverywhere, 2015).
The legally required employee benefits constitute nearly a quarter of the benefits package that employers provide. These benefits include employer contributions to Social Security, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation insurance. Altogether such benefits represent about twenty-one and half percent of payroll costs.
The higher cost of affordable Health care is also eroding the ease with which to afford other insurance that covers about 30 percent of Medicare enrollees ‘expenses. In 2005, about 89 percent of beneficiaries obtained such additional coverage, including through former employers (33 percent), medical policies (25 percent), Medicare advantage plans (13 percent), Medicaid (16 percent), or other programs (1 percent) (MedPAC). These supplemental insurance programs were all very helpful at the onset, but with the passage of time and as health care costs continued to rise, employers are finding it difficult to support these programs and as a consequence, a greater number of these employers are either reducing the benefit or eliminating these benefits especially those that affects their retirees thereby increasing the cost of these supplemental insurances.