An Accounting Today post pointed us to a link worth sharing: the IRS’ new informational pages on the small business health care tax credit.  The pages walk through the process of applying for the credit, has a frequently asked questions link, and spells out the eligibility rules such as:

- Providing health care coverage. A qualifying employer must cover at least 50 percent of the cost of health care coverage for some of its workers based on the single rate.

- Both taxable (for profit) and tax-exempt firms qualify

- Firm size. A qualifying employer must have less than the equivalent of 25 full-time workers (for example, an employer with fewer than 50 half-time workers may be eligible).

- Average annual wage. A qualifying employer must pay average annual wages below $50,000.

- Both taxable (for profit) and tax-exempt firms qualify.

With the seemingly constant focus on health care, this credit should be a positive for qualifying businesses.

Employee Benefit Plans have become a greater area of concern for the Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance, especially with regard to the “fair share contribution” (FSC) requirement of the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Act.  Employee Benefit News published a comprehensive piece on how the increase in audits is showing that many employers are coming up short despite their efforts and intentions.

The article is worth a read in its entirety, but I wanted to call out one section that summarizes the test to help guide compliance of FSC:

(1) Threshold coverage: Does the employer employ 11 or more full-time equivalent employees in the Commonwealth for the relevant testing period? If the answer is no, then the employer is not subject to the FSC requirement and need not pay an annual fair share employer contribution to the Commonwealth.

(2) FSC testing: If the answer to Part 1 is yes, then the following tests are applied: (more…)

2010 certainly offers some new and interesting financial planning opportunities for high net-worth individuals. Chief among them, and something my colleagues (Jeff Arsenault, Carl Famiglietti) and I have been discussing on MFA’s Business Insights Blog, are the new Roth IRA conversion rules that effectively eliminate the income limitations associated with converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Beginning in 2010, all taxpayers — regardless of income levels — can now convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.

Given the appropriate facts and circumstances, a Roth IRA conversion can be a powerful strategy for providing continued tax free growth of retirement assets, not only for investors, but for future beneficiaries of their Roth IRA as well. However, what might be a surprise to some are the additional estate planning benefits that can be derived from a Roth IRA conversion. (more…)