Tax Planning
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010’s shared responsibility provision, commonly referred to as “play or pay,” is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2014. It doesn’t require employers to provide health care coverage, but it in some cases imposes penalties on larger employers that don’t offer coverage or that provide coverage that is “unaffordable” or that doesn’t provide “minimum value.”
A large employer is one with at least 50 full-time employees, or a combination of full-time and part-time employees that’s “equivalent” to at least 50 full-time employees. The nondeductible penalties generally are $2,000 per full-time employee.
Although the shared responsibility provisions don’t take effect until 2014, employers will use information about the workers they employ in 2013 to determine whether they’re subject to the provisions and face the potential for penalties in 2014. The rules are complex, so contact us today to learn whether you might be subject to penalties and what steps you can take to avoid, or at least minimize, them.
Dear: Clients and Friends
To help you stay abreast of timely tax topics that might affect you, we’ve recently made some updates to our online tax planning guide:
- Added some new “Taxing Questions” on timely topics.
- Added more information about 2013 tax planning.
We suggest that you visit our website, www.steiner-gelber.com, and click on the [button] [banner ad] for the guide to learn the answers to questions that may be relevant to you, as well as to learn more about ways to save tax. If you haven’t already reviewed the information on the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 that you’ll find in the “Tax Act Summaries” section, we encourage you to do so. This act significantly increases taxes on higher income taxpayers and may require you to rethink your tax plan.
Please let us know if you have any questions about the updates or how they might affect your tax planning strategies.
Best regards,
Jeff Steiner and Cliff Gelber