Health Care Law’s Rules Around Seasonal Workers

As an employer, your size – for purposes of the Affordable Care Act –  is determined by the number of your employees. If you hire seasonal or holiday workers, you should know how these employees are counted under the health care law.

Employer benefits, opportunities and requirements are dependent upon your organization’s size and the applicable rules. If you have at least 50 full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees, on average during the prior year, you are an ALE for the current calendar year.  However, there is an exception for seasonal workers.

If you have at least 50 full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees, on average during the prior year, your organization is an ALE. Here’s the exception: If your workforce exceeds 50 full-time employees for 120 days or fewer during a calendar year, and the employees in excess of 50 during that period were seasonal workers, your organization is not considered an ALE. For this purpose, a seasonal worker is an employee who performs labor or services on a seasonal basis.

The terms seasonal worker and seasonal employee are both used in the employer shared responsibility provisions, but in two different contexts. Only the term seasonal worker is relevant for determining whether an employer is an applicable large employer subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions.

Courtesy of IRS

For more information contact Neikirk, Mahoney and Smith at 502-896-2999

How the Size of Your Workforce Affects Your Responsibilities

Two parts of the Affordable Care Act apply only to applicable large employers. These are the employer shared responsibility provisions and the employer information reporting provisions for offers of minimum essential coverage.   Whether an employer is an ALE is determined each calendar year, and generally depends on the average size of an employer’s workforce during the prior year.

How to Determine Workforce Size

To determine your workforce size for a year, you add your total number of full-time employees for each month of the prior calendar year to the total number of full-time equivalent employees for each calendar month of the prior calendar year and divide that total number by 12. If the result is 50 or more employees, you are an applicable large employer.

Courtesy of IRS

For more information contact Neikirk, Mahoney and Smith at 502-896-2999

How Seasonal Workers Affect Your Workforce Size

For purposes of the Affordable Care Act, an employer’s size is determined by the number of its employees. Employer benefits, opportunities and requirements are dependent upon the employer’s size and the applicable rules. If an employer has at least 50 full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees, on average during the prior year, the employer is an ALE for the current calendar year.  However, there is an exception for seasonal workers.

Here’s the exception: If your workforce exceeds 50 full-time employees for 120 days or fewer during a calendar year, and the employees in excess of 50 during that period were seasonal workers, your organization is not considered an ALE. For this purpose, a seasonal worker is an employee who performs labor or services on a seasonal basis.

The terms seasonal worker and seasonal employee are both used in the employer shared responsibility provisions, but in two different contexts. Only the term seasonal worker is relevant for determining whether an employer is an applicable large employer subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions.

Courtesy of IRS

For more information contact Neikirk, Mahoney and Smith at 502-896-2999

Online Tools Help Individuals and Employers Estimate Health Care Law’s Effect on Taxes

Whether you’re an employer or an individual taxpayer, the Taxpayer Advocate Service has several tools available to assist you in estimating credits and payments related to the Affordable Care Act. The Taxpayer Advocate Service recently added a tool to help employers understand how the employer shared responsibility provisions apply to their organization.

Because these tools provide only an estimate, you should not rely on them as an accurate calculation. You should use these estimators only as a guide to assist you in making decisions regarding your tax situation.

Courtesy of IRS

For more information contact Neikirk, Mahoney and Smith at 502-896-2999

Employers and Coverage Providers: Access Webinars to Learn about ACA Provisions

Employers and health coverage providers have access to newly updated webinars from the IRS.  These recorded webinars explain the employer provisions, information reporting, and related tax requirements that are part of the Affordable Care Act. If you are a business owner, tax manager, employee benefits manager, or health coverage provider, you can access and review these videos on the IRS Video Portal at your convenience.

For information contact Neikirk, Mahoney & Smith at 502-896-2999

How does the Affordable Care Act impact your tax return?

The Affordable Care Act contains comprehensive health insurance reforms and includes tax provisions that affect individuals, families, businesses, insurers, tax-exempt organizations and government entities. These tax provisions contain important changes, including how individuals and families file their taxes. The law also contains benefits and responsibilities for other organizations and employers. For more information call Neikirk, Mahoney and Smith at 502-896-2999.

HIRE Act Update from Neikirk, Mahoney & Smith

Under the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, enacted March 18, 2010, two new tax benefits are available to employers who hire certain previously unemployed workers (“qualified employees”).

The first, referred to as the payroll tax exemption, provides employers with an exemption from the employer’s 6.2 percent share of social security tax on wages paid to qualifying employees, effective for wages paid from March 19, 2010 through December 31, 2010.

In addition, for each qualified employee retained for at least 52 consecutive weeks, businesses will also be eligible for a general business tax credit, referred to as the new hire retention credit, of 6.2 percent of wages paid to the qualified employee over the 52 week period, up to a maximum credit of $1,000.

If you have questions, contact Neikirk, Mahoney & Smith CPAs at 502-896-2999.

Health Care Law Tax Provisions in Video

Employers and health coverage providers now have access to recorded webinars from IRS about the Affordable Care Act’s employer provisions and related tax requirements. If you are a business owner, tax manager, employee benefits manager, or health coverage provider, you can access and review these videos anytime to better understand how the health care law may affect your organization.

Each of the following ACA videos on the IRS Video Portal provides about 40 minutes of detailed information on the specific tax provision mentioned in the title.

Employer Shared Responsibility Provision

Learn about determining applicable large employer status, payments, and transition relief for 2015.

Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage Information Reporting Requirements for Applicable Large Employers (37 minutes)
Learn about employer-sponsored health coverage information reporting requirements for applicable large employers, including:

• who is required to report
• what information the law requires you to report
• how to complete the required forms

Information Reporting Requirements for Providers of Minimum Essential Coverage (35 minutes)
Learn about the information reporting requirements for providers of minimum essential coverage, including employers that provide self-insured coverage.  Learn about:

• who is required to report
• what information the law requires you to report
• how to complete the required forms

View the recorded webinars in the IRS Video Portal using one of the following tabs: Businesses, Tax Professionals, Governments and Non-Profits. After clicking on one of these tabs, simply select “Affordable Care Act” from the list of topics on the left side of the screen, and you will see a list of recordings about these and other ACA topics.

In addition to videos about the tax provisions of the Affordable Care Act on the IRS Video Portal, there is a wide range of videos on other tax topics for individuals, businesses and tax professionals.

For more information about the Affordable Care Act visit IRS.gov/aca or call your Louisville Tax Professionals at Neikirk, Mahoney & Smith, PLLC at 502-896-2999.