employee benefits Archives - Blau Company Accounting & Tax Preparation

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 [...]

Aaron Blau, EA, CPA2016-10-27T16:55:00-07:00January 23rd, 2014|Business Tax, Personal Tax|Comments Off

“Use-it-or-Lose” FSA Rules Relaxed

Taxpayers who utilize Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) are well aware of the 'use-it-or-lose-it' rule regarding expending pre-tax money set aside for medical expenses. Previously, any amounts unused by year-end are forfitted. Under Internal Revenue Code Section 125(j) as added in the Affordable Care Act (also known as 'Obamacare'), taxpayer are now eligible to roll-over up to $500 of unused funds to a following plan year. The roll-over does not affect the $2,500 contribution maximum in the subsequent year. Sponsors (employers) must amend their plan to take into account the new elective changes. Aaron's Take: The end-of-year rush to spend FSA money [...]