Healthcare Reform Small Business Credit 

The IRS is making this information widely known and has mailed millions of small businesses by postcards notification.  Ensure you talk to your eligible clients and/or prospects.  This is a fantastic opportunity for a small business!

Eligibility Rules

• 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.
• 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.

Controlled Groups

All employees of all corporations which are members of a controlled group of corporations are treated as employed by a single employer. If the total of all employees is more than 50 employees, the corporation would be ineligible

For More Information

News release IR-2010-38, New for 2010: Tax Credit Helps Small Employers Provide Health Insurance Coverage, gives a description of the credit and when and how to claim it.   

Other Tax Credits Available?  Yes!

As of 2009, House Bill 977 was passed which provided businesses with incentives to elect and offer H.S.A. eligible Qualified High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP's) by:

• Eliminating both state and county premium taxes on HSA-qualified HDHP's, giving HDHP plans a premium tax savings of 2.5 to 5 percent, depending on the county.
• Offering businesses with fewer than 50 employees that offer HDHPs and pay at least $250 a year toward the cost of coverage a $250 tax credit for each employee enrolled in an HSA-qualified HDHP for a full year.

Incidentally, this legislation also made it advantageous for individuals to purchase an HSA-eligible plan.

As the school year came to a close and my own children fell headlong into the madness of spring fever, it occurred to me that we can occasionally suffer from a similar mindset in our businesses. 

Our children faced finals and projects and reports, with the knowledge that a break was right around the corner.  The pressure can make them cranky and unruly. 

We face our own tests: Finalist presentations, Open Enrollments and increased competition from sources that didn't exist until very recently.  It can make us cranky and unruly!  On top of all the mess within HCR, we have to deal with the tactical 'on the ground' stuff in our own private practices.  It's enough to drive you bonkers!

Amidst all of the negative out there, we owe it to ourselves, our families and our clients to "Just Breathe," as my daughter would say.  And that's good advice, I think.  Please take a moment to be thankful that, despite mounting evidence splashed across the TV screen that says otherwise, we live in a country where we STILL have freedoms that much of the world cannot comprehend. 

With those freedoms come responsibility. 

We should be thankful for that responsibility, and live up to it!  In the moments when we sit back, take a breath and make a effort to appreciate what we have, we easily realize that we are truly blessed.

Yes, we still have work to do.  The freedoms we enjoy have a price, after all.  But it's a price that we should bear with joy. 

So get ready for summer.  Take a breath. 

Come to think of it, what better place to take a breath than the Ritz Carlton Lodge at Lake Oconee during the GAHU Convention June 16-18? (You didn't think you were getting off without the Convention pitch, did you?!) 

Regardless of where you 'take your breath', please recharge those batteries and come back with the energy your families and clients deserve! 

Happy Summer, my GAHU colleagues!

Blake Watts

2009-2010 GAHU President

theblakewatts@gmail.com

2010 GAHU Convention

GAHU's convention will be held at the Ritz Carlton Reynolds Plantation on June 16^th - 18^th, 2010.   Click Here for Registration Brochure

Keynote Speaker

Neal Boortz

General Sessions:

• "Shape of the New America" presented by Russell B. Childers, CLU, RHU, NAHU President.
• "Creating Value as a Benefit Professional" presented by Mel Schlesinger, RHU, REBC, NAHU Vice President.
• "Myths of Health Insurance Reform - Why Government needs to stay out of the Health Insurance business" presented by Neal Boortz.

GAHU Healthcare Summit:

Gain an understanding of the "Georgia Response" to Health Care regulations from all perspectives:

• Regulatory & Legislative Panel
• Business & Consumers Panel
• Providers Panel

Attendees & Sponsors/Exhibitors:

The vendor space sold out!

In addition to the sponsors list below, a special "Thanks" to Purchasing Alliance as a breakfast sponsor and name badge sponsor.