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Showing posts with label Obamacare Small Business Health Insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obamacare Small Business Health Insurance. Show all posts

Obamacare Small Business Health Insurance

By Jeannie Monette


Provision of health cover has remained a huge challenge for small businesses over the years. Obamacare small business health insurance cover is designed to address these challenges. It offers tax credits and breaks to offset the expenses of providing such cover to employees and extending the same to families. The plan has facilitated establishment of market places or SHOPs in every state to facilitate purchase of these plans by interested businesses depending on their needs.

Employers with less than 50 employees are provided with unique packages that include tax breaks and credits for providing cover. Packages depend on whether they are full-time or equivalent and their annual wage. Businesses with 25 or less employees will be considered in 2014. Their wage bill must be below 50,000 dollars as well. They are provided with tax credits so that they can offset the premiums paid for their employees.

It is possible to claim the breaks back to the year 2010. This covers businesses that have been providing such cover over the past years. The clause on employers with a workforce of over 100 people will be implemented in 2015. Their total wages should be more than 250,000 dollars. The other name used for this clause is employer mandate.

By 2016, businesses employing between 50 and 99 individuals are required to provide full cover. The cover is for those engaged on full time basis. The penalties for not insuring workers by 2015 include a shared responsibility fee of 2000 dollars. This will be submitted alongside end of year federal income taxes. If employees get their subsidies through the market place, an employer is required to part with 3000 dollars instead.

There has been an increase of . 9 percent on medicare part A tax for businesses with more than 250,000 dollars in annual profits. The figure is split into half between the employer and the employee. Employees who are affected by this increase are those who make 250,000 annually as a family or 200,000 as individuals.

Businesses with over 50 employees are required to inform them of their entitlement and exchange or market rates. Direct enrollment opens in 2015 but individuals can begin to enjoy services at the SHOP in November 2014. Businesses with more than 50 workers have to wait until November 2015 to begin direct enrollment.

Small businesses are allowed to purchase SHOP plans through agents and claim their breaks when it opens in November 2014. This tax is carried back retroactively for the previous years. It also may be carried forward to the future. The important factors in the plan include size of your full-time workforce and your profits over the year.




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