Tax Warrior Chronicles

In a 6-3 decision today, the Supreme Court held that the Affordable Care Act (“The Act”) authorized federal tax credits for eligible Americans living in states with their own exchanges and also in the 34 states with federal exchanges.  The ruling is a major win for the Obama administration.  For business owners, nothing changes but there are still many moving parts of the Act from both a compliance and planning perspective.

Beginning this year, all taxpayers will be affected, to some extent, by the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).  We'd like to remind you, our loyal blog readers, of the approaching deadlines created by the ACA and make you aware of the new guidance issued by the IRS in February 2014 that may be to your benefit. 

A host of tax changes occurred last year (2013) and now the filing season—the moment of truth--is here. Do you have all the information you need to make the right decisions concerning your business taxes? Through our blog, e-newsletter and timely email messages, we’ll be covering these changes through the filing season, just as we have done throughout 2013.

7/2/13 - THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS ANNOUNCED TODAY THAT THE REQUIREMENT WITHIN THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT FOR BUSINESSES WITH 50 OR MORE EMPLOYEES TO PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE WILL BE DELAYED UNTIL JANUARY 1, 2015. THE ADMINISTRATION CITED "CONCERNS ABOUT THE COMPLEXITIES OF THE REQUIREMENTS AND THE NEED FOR MORE TIME TO IMPLEMENT THEM EFFECTIVELY."  THESE COMPANIES WILL NOT BE PENALIZED FOR NOT PROVIDING HEALTH INSURANCE THROUGHOUT 2014. 

Our blog post on Wednesday, March 20th,  outlined the income and Social Security tax implications for employers and other service recipients depending on the classification of certain individuals who provide the services to them (i.e., whether these service providers are “employees” or “independent contractors”).  This is a longstanding area of controversy that is likely to continue at least until the tax law clearly defines what an “employee” really is. There is another possible wrinkle that has recently surfaced for employers and other service recipients.