As many of our blog posts do, today’s post originates from a question from one of our readers regarding funding an HSA. The question had to do with the tax treatment of contributions to the HSA and whether said contributions are free from FICA tax. In order to have an HSA the employer/employee must be participating in a high deductible health plan (HDHP). HDHP plans must meet a minimum deductible of $1,300 for single individual plans and $2,600 for family plans. In addition, the maximum contribution for an HSA is $3,350 for an individual plan and $6,750 for a family plan. For those age 55 and older, the plans allow an additional $1,000 catch-up contribution. Generally, employers making contributions to the employees’ HSA avoid paying FICA and FUTA taxes and are also allowed a corresponding tax deduction for providing the employee benefit. Employees making contributions to their own HSA through […]
health savings
Lose Your Health Insurance? COBRA May Help
Former employees recently let go from their job may find themselves wondering what options they have to continue their employer provided health insurance. Generally, an employee is allowed to continue their coverage from loss of employment due to voluntary or involuntary termination, disability, reductions in hours, death, divorce, or becoming eligible for Medicare. The length of time an individual has to remain on COBRA depends on the reason why they lost coverage from their employer. For example, if an employee is terminated either voluntarily or involuntarily he or she will have up to 18 months of coverage. In the event of death, divorce or becoming eligible for Medicare, the length of time is 36 months. In the event an employee becomes disabled, the length of time is 29 months. The reason for such an odd number is that in order to become eligible for Medicare from disability the individual must […]
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A Consequence of the Affordable Care Act
As much as I wanted to put the word unintended before consequence in my title, I had a hard time believing that what I’m about to write about was unintended. As many of you are aware, the Affordable Care Act a.k.a. “Obamacare” is the law passed that requires, among other things, that everyone carry health insurance, subject to some specific exclusions. What I want to talk about is how this affected my insurance specifically and likely affected the insurance of many others. Before the Act was passed my family and I enjoyed health insurance through our HSA. A health savings account allows a person or family to have a high deductible health insurance plan while also making tax deductible contributions to an account that can amass funds for medical expenses. Funds from the account that pay for qualified medical expenses are tax free. Self-employed individuals can also deduct their health […]
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Health Insurance Tax Tips for the Self-Employed
The following list comes to you from the folks over at eHealthInsurance.com: New this year! Take a one-time opportunity to reduce your self-employment taxes – In addition to the standard ‘above the line’ deduction described below, self-employed persons can also deduct the cost of their health insurance premiums from their self-employment taxes on Schedule SE. This is a one-time-only opportunity available for 2010 taxes, so if you’re self-employed be sure to take advantage of it. Image via Wikipedia Deduct health insurance premiums as a business expense – If you had self-employment income, you may also be able to deduct health insurance premiums you paid for yourself and your dependents as an ‘above the line’ business expense (that is, without itemizing) on your federal tax return. Be aware, however, that you may not deduct premiums paid for any month in which you were eligible to participate in an employer-sponsored health insurance […]
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March 15 is the Deadline for FSA Claims
If you’re a participant in your employer’s Flex-Spending Account plan (FSA), whether for health-care or dependent care cost reimbursement, you have a limited amount of time to claim the monies that have been set aside in your plan. The way these plans work is that you voluntarily decrease your income by a certain amount, generally paycheck by paycheck, and that amount is placed in a separate account. Over the course of the calendar year, you can request reimbursement from your FSA funds for qualified expenses that you’ve incurred. If it’s a health-care FSA account, you can request reimbursement for your healthcare deductibles, co-payments, and co-insurance costs – literally any health-care expense that is not covered (paid) by other insurance. There are limits, though: beginning with 2011, you cannot be reimbursed for non-prescription (over the counter) medications. If the FSA account is for dependent-care expenses, you can request reimbursement for your […]
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And if you’ve come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed “advisor’s advisor”.