Large Penalties Await Employers Who Reimbursed Certain Employee Health Insurance Premiums In 2014

Forbes ^ | 1/18/2015 @ 5:32PM | Tony Nitti

[dila813]

Do you have people – as in, more than one – working for you? If so, you’re probably knee deep in preparing Forms W-2 for your employees before the January 31st deadline. Well, what if I told you that when you send in those forms, unless you’re aware of an under-publicized change to the insurance and tax laws that took place on January 1, 2014, you might be exposing yourself to tens or even hundreds, of thousands of dollars in penalties? And what if I told you that even if reading this column makes you aware of the required change, there might not be anything you can do at this point to avoid these huge penalties, other than to hope for IRS leniency?

[dila813]

Wow, More good News!/sarc

[Organic Panic]

We had to pass it to see what was in it.

[piytar]

Obastard’s war on working America continues...

[molson209]

huge penalties if you don’t have insurance and huge penalties if you have insurance ?

[dila813]

A method to kill small businesses, especially s-corps, No wonder they are failing in droves.

[Fred Hayek]

This is the continuation of the Democratic Party’s war on small business. If you recall the Clinton Administration’s Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, his writings proposed getting rid of small businesses and folding them into industrial combines. Fascism, plain and simple. Only a few steps to the right of Communism, still leftist statist totalitarianism.

[Thank You Rush]

“”The logic seems correct: if you are reimbursing an employee for a plan purchased on the individual market, whether those payments are taxable or tax-free has no bearing on whether the reimbursement “plan” you are offering can be integrated with the plans purchased by the employees. It is clear, then, that the same violations of market reform exist in either instance.””

I was following pretty good until I got to the above on page 5....How many companies are they going to run out of business with this? As many as they can, I suppose.

[dila813]

With Obamacare, they were taxing the health insurance employers were offering.

I think it was 14% tax, that’s why everyone’s health insurance went up across the board.

When you buy individual insurance, you pay a higher rate but you don’t pay the 14% tax.

So they are trying to force all employers to pay the tax.

With this logic, they should have just charged the employers 14% for the amount the reimbursed. But instead they decided to do a penalty.

Looks like they are trying to run them out of business.

[jimpick]

And the GOPe goes along with this by not fighting to repeal it. It is not just the dems who are against small business anymore.

[RetiredTexasVet]

What else would you expect .... look at history. In Russia they went after the Kulaks (the small businesses of the day) immediately after taking power. His Arrogance is just following the advice of his father .... Frank Marshall Davis.

[griswold3]

Here’s the answer:
“Thus, to avoid a potential $36,500 penalty per employee, more drastic measures are needed — the employer must eliminate all appearances of a plan.

Stated in another manner, an employer can no longer offer any type of direct-pay or reimbursement of an employee’s premiums without exposing themselves to the penalty. In fact, the employer should not even inquire whether the employee has insurance.”