Are you still not sure if you need a Health Care plan for you and your family? You rather pay the high fees for physicians, emergency care and prescription drugs when you or your children have an ailment, disease or accident? And you don’t mind paying a penalty for not complying when you file your income tax return?
The penalty for being uninsured in 2014 is either a flat dollar amount, $95 per adult with a family maximum of $285, or 1 percent of household income, whichever is greater. Penalties in 2015 will be 2 percent of household income, or $325 per person, unless they qualify for an exemption.
But maybe you work for an employer that is considered a small business since it has less than 50 full time employees? Those firms are exempt from the mandate to provide health insurance. However, if you work in a larger company and your company does not offer this benefit, the penalty that the firm needs to pay for every full time equivalent employee is $2,000. Companies that employ between 50 and 99 full time persons can postpone offering health insurance until 2016. The IRS has specific guidance on how to compute the total number of full time equivalent employees for a firm.
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Small-Business-Health-Care-Tax-Credit-Questions-and-Answers:-Determining-FTEs-and-Average-Annual-Wages
What can you do to get coverage?
The best strategy is to talk with your boss or human resource department. Show them this video about an affordable health care solution that also gives employees an opportunity to choose a low cost plan. This option can be combined with a Health Savings Account when the deductible is higher than $1,300 for a single person and more than $2,600 for a family plan. See my last post for advantages of a Health Savings Account.
Take a tour of the Health Care Market Place here.
Since January 22, 2015 the IRS accepts individual income tax returns. Many CPA firms, tax service providers and the volunteers of the AARP or Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program sponsored by the IRS are busy preparing Tax Forms. Individuals that purchased their own health insurance this year’s filing needs 2 additional forms. Form 1095-A is a statement that shows your coverage and will be mailed out in February by the Health Insurance Market Place. This information is need to complete form 8962 to reconcile the subsidy if you got this at time of purchase or get tax credit now.
With open enrollment closing in just one week there is not much time left to contemplate. Feel free to contact me on any matter discussed in the post regarding taxes or health insurance.
Thank you for reading my post. If you like the information let me know through a comment or by clicking the follow button on this page.
Recent Comments