All 2012 W2’s that will be distributed in January 2013 are required to report the aggregate cost of insurance coverage. Currently, if you filed less than 250 W2’s in 2011 you are exempt from this W2 reporting requirement this year.
The value of health care coverage will be reported in Box 12 of the W2 with code DD to identify the amount. You are required to report the total cost of both employer and employee contributions for major medical and any other nontaxable “group health plan” coverage for which COBRA is offered, except if dental or vision coverage is offered on a stand alone basis. A copy of the full chart from the IRS outlining the types of coverage that employers must report on the W2 can be accessed here.
Please contact our office with any questions.
With all of your generosity, we were able to exceed our goal of adopting 20 kids this year.
We fulfilled the wishes of over 30 children in foster care with Community Partnership for Children. In addition, we provided monetary donations totaling $700.00 to help even more children.
We would like to send a BIG THANK YOU to the following individuals/companies who helped us surpass our goal this year:
The children and AAG appreciate all of your support this holiday season!
~The AAG team
Our payroll stuffer this month will focus on the important topic of Surviving the Holidays. It covers topics imporant to your employees such as:
For the full version of this document, please contact luann@visitaag.com.
Thank you.
The new healthcare reform law includes a number of new taxes and fees which are rarely mentioned by the law’s supporters. On December 5, the IRS announced final regulations governing new fees on health insurers and employer sponsors of self-insured health plans, designed to fund the “Patient Centered Outcomes Research Trust”. This Trust finances an “Institute” tasked with “advancing the quality and relevance of evidence medicine through the synthesis and dissemination of comparative clinical effectiveness research findings”.
Say what??
Since insurers must pay the fee with respect to insured plans, the following discussion will center on obligations of self-funded plan sponsors. For calendar year plans, the first payment is due July 31, 2013. Employers sponsoring self-insured plans need to be aware of these issues now since 2012 plan data will be necessary to calculate the fee owing in 2013.
The regulations describe how the new fee is calculated and paid by sponsors of self-insured plans for plan years ending on or after Oct 1, 2012 and before Oct 1, 2019, when the fee is scheduled to expire. The fee is based on the number of lives covered by the plan, which means the sponsor pays on the basis of participants (including COBRA recipients), as well as covered spouses, dependents and other beneficiaries.
Since the fee affects all plans with plan years ending on and after Oct 1, 2012, it is required for most plans this year, including all calendar year plans. For plan years ending before Oct 1, 2013 (for most plans, the current plan year), the fee is $1 times the average number of lives covered by the plan.
For plan years ending on and after Oct 13, 2013, the fee is $2 per average number of lives, and for years ending after Oct 13, 2014, the fee will increase based on the projected per capita amount of national health expenditures. Fees are due no later than July 31 of the year following the last day of the plan year. For calendar year plans, that means the first fee is due July 31, 2013.
For more detailed information, please review the full alert on Fisher & Phillips LLP website.
Workplace bullying is mistreatment severe enough to compromise a targeted worker’s health, jeopardize his or her job and career, and strain relationships with friends and family, among other things. But HR leaders first need to learn how to recognize the signs of it in order to stop it.
UnitedHealthcare is launching a new Fitness Reimbursement Program for members starting January 1, 2013.
The Fitness Reimbursement program offers money back for members who go to the gym on a regular basis. Here is how the program works:
Please contact our office for a copy of the UHC flyer to distribute to employees to help promote the new program.
Two workplace posters, as required by the State of FL, have recently been updated.
The Florida Unemployment Insurance poster has been updated to reflect a new name from the Unemployment Compensation Program to the Reemployment Assistance Program. The agency has also been renamed to reflect the same.
Additionally, the new FL Minimum Wage poster, that goes into effect January 1, 2013, has been released.
Please contact our office for copies of either poster.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency that has enforcement responsibility over the Fair Credit Report Act (FCRA), revised the forms that employers must use to comply with the FCRA effective January 1, 2013. There was only one problem with the forms the CFPB originally provided for use: they contained various typos and technical errors that the CFPB has now recognized and corrected.
The forms that were issued include:
The good news for those employers who have already transitioned to the forms that were published in December 2011, the CFPB says it will regard the use of the originally published model forms, typos and technical errors notwithstanding. For employers that have not yet started using the new FCRA forms, make sure you use the newly corrected one available.
Please contact our office for a copy of the new FCRA forms.
Beginning in 2013, employee pre-tax contributions to a flexible spending account (FSA) will be limited to $2500. In the past, companies could impose their own limits on these employee contributions.
The limit applies based on your cafeteria plan’s plan year. It is first applicable to plan years beginning in 2013. For the majority of companies, this means it will become effective January 1, 2013 and the open enrollment materials for 2013 have to be changed to incorporate the limit.
If the cafeteria plan utilizes the 2 ½ month grace period that allows for a carryover of amounts, these carryover amounts do not reduce the $2500 limit.
Any company contributions made to the cafeteria plan- so called “flex credits”- are not subject to any limit and do not count towards the $2500.
The $2500 is indexed for inflation, like so many other limits on benefits.
The cafeteria plan has be amended no later than December 31, 2014 to reflect the new limit.
Please be sure to consult with your current Section 125 administrator regarding updating your plan document to reflect the new FSA limit or contact our office regarding setting up an FSA account or amending your document.
When the effects of domestic violence reach into the workplace, employers need to address it as promptly and aggressively as they would address any other safety hazard. At the same time, domestic violence is unlike any other safety hazard. While many victims of domestic violence commonly exhibit some of Susan’s behaviors described above, such as concealing or lying about injuries, erratic attendance, and work performance issues, they are not always easy to recognize. Similarly, perpetrators of domestic violence typically act out in private; in public settings, perpetrators may just seem overly protective of their partners or spouses.
Courtesy of Fisher & Phillips LLP