obamacare 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 [...]

Aaron Blau, EA, CPA2016-10-27T16:54:56-07:00July 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 [...]

Aaron Blau, EA, CPA2016-10-27T16:54:56-07:00March 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 [...]

Aaron Blau, EA, CPA2016-10-27T16:55:00-07:00January 23rd, 2014|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 [...]

Aaron Blau, EA, CPA2016-10-27T16:55:01-07:00July 30th, 2013|Business Tax|Comments Off