affordable care act Archives - Blau Company Accounting & Tax Preparation

Five Things You Should Know in 2015 about the ACA

In recognition of the five-year anniversary of healthcare reform, here are five things you should know about some of the key ACA requirements for businesses in 2015: The shared responsibility provision of healthcare reform is effective either this year or next year, depending on how many employees you have. The employer mandate or “play or pay,” provision requires companies with at least 50 full-time equivalent employees to offer minimum essential healthcare coverage to their full-time employees and their dependents. Applicable large employers (ALEs) can choose to pay a substantial penalty if they don’t abide by the law. Companies with 100 [...]

July 24th, 2015|Business Tax, General Consulting, Personal Tax|Comments Off

Five Tax Filing Predictions for 2015

The IRS audited 0.86 percent of all individual income tax returns last year, the lowest coverage rate since 2004. And The Washington Post reports that IRS service is, well, abysmal. IRS National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson testified that as of February 14, “only 43 percent of the people who called IRS…were able to reach a human being.” So, where does this leave us this tax season? The National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA), the association that represents the federally licensed tax practitioners who hold the highest credential awarded by the IRS, has released some prognostications for 2015. 1) The number [...]

March 13th, 2015|Personal Tax|Comments Off

What is “Affordable Coverage?”

Most of our clients are not subject to the Affordable Care Act mandate to provide affordable coverage, but many of our individual tax clients are employed by companies that do. The Tax Advisor, in it's August 2013 issue, provides details about safe-harbor rules that employers can follow in determining if they are providing affordable insurance. W-2 Safe Harbor The W-2 safe harbor allows the employer to measure afforability by making sure the employee contribution to healthcare insurance is no more than 9.5% of the box 1 wages found on the employee's W-2. Aaron's Take: This is interesting, given that an employee [...]

January 23rd, 2014|Business Tax, Personal Tax|Comments Off

Financial Literacy & Healthcare

A recent AICPA survey of 1,008 adults administered by Harris Interactive showed that 51% of the respondents could not identify the terms premium, deductible, and copay. These terms are basic fundamental terms related to the administration of health insurance. 'Half of Americans would fail health insurance 101," Ernie Almote, CPA, chair of the AICPA Financial Literacy Commission, said in a news release. Of the respondents, fourteen percent did not have health insurance and half said that paying for insurance was their biggest concern about the Affordable Care Act mandate. Forty one percent of the individuals said they are not at all knowledgable [...]

January 16th, 2014|General Consulting, Personal Tax|Comments Off

Health Insurance Exchanges are now Open

AICPA's October 11 e-Alert reminds taxpayers that: "While the government may be closed, the Health Insurance Marketplace (“Exchange”) is up and running. The Exchanges were formed to help Americans obtain affordable health insurance coverage. Individuals can apply for insurance on the Exchange web page. Step-by-step instructions walk applicants through the entire process, from choosing a plan that fits their needs to finalizing an application. Insurance coverage obtained through an exchange will become effective Jan. 1, 2014. Be advised there have been some problems reported with access to the exchanges due to technology glitches."

October 12th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Model for Affordable Care Act Notifications

Employers and Professionals please take a moment to read the below text concerning a mandate from Healthcare Reform. As an employer this model notification must be given as dictated below to all employees whether you currently provide coverage or not. All companies, regardless of size, are required to notify their employees about the marketplaces. The Deadline for this notification is before October 1, 2013. Please take the time to complete this form and distribute to your employee base the fines for non-compliance can be extensive. Penalties for businesses that don’t comply could reach $100 per worker per day. Additionally after [...]

October 2nd, 2013|Accounting, Business Tax|Comments Off

The Affordable Care Act

In March 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Affordable Care Act”) into law. While some provisions of the ACA have already gone into effect, a number of new provisions are scheduled to take effect January 1, 2014. Although we do not intend this newsletter to be the answer-all to the ACA, we thought this would be a good time to look at some of the provisions that might affect you. The Affordable Care Act – an Overview Under the Affordable Care Act, all individuals will be required to have health insurance. There will be [...]

September 16th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

New Medicare Tax on High Earners

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as ObamaCare, began its implementation of a new Medicare surtax on high earners on January 1, 2013. The tax will be assessed for individuals and married taxpayers who have modified adjusted gross income in excess of $200,000 and $250,000 respectively. Employers will withhold an additional amount from wages for those earning more than $200,000 from any one employer. This amount, unlike most Social Security and Medicare Tax, is not required to be matched by the employer. As we review the new regulations pertaining to the tax, we note that families with [...]

July 31st, 2013|Business Tax, Personal Tax|Comments Off

2nd Quarter 2013 Updates – Obamacare aka Affordable Care Act

The following is a summary of the most important tax developments that have occurred in the past three months that may affect you, your family, your investments, and your livelihood. Please call us for more information about any of these developments and what steps you should implement to take advantage of favorable developments and to minimize the impact of those that are unfavorable. Obamacare Employer health care reporting and mandate payments postponed until 2015. On July 2, 2013, the Administration announced on the White House and Treasury websites that it will provide an additional year, until Jan. 1, 2015, before [...]

July 30th, 2013|Business Tax|Comments Off