IRS Launches Voluntary Classification Settlement Program
If you have independent contractors in your office, you need to pay attention to an employment tax settlement program launched by the IRS—the Voluntary Classification Settlement Program (VCSP). This program allows employers to reclassify as employees those workers they have erroneously treated as independent contractors. The program has generous payment terms, and participants get relief from employment tax audits for previous years.
CHANGED HIPAA RULES APPLICABLE TO GROUP HEALTH PLANS AFTER 2013 UNDER THE ACA
As a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) as it relates to requirements imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) and other related acts, there are changed requirements for your group health plan. These HIPAA requirements include HIPAA’s “portability” rules that restrict a health plan’s ability to exclude individuals based on pre-existing conditions, and “access” rules prohibiting plans from excluding individuals based on their health status. These rules have largely been eliminated by the Affordable Care Act, except for individual health plans that retain “grandfathered“ status (that is, those plans in existence on September 23, 2010, that have not been modified or renewed). HIPAA’s rules regarding privacy and security of “private health information” continue and remain unaltered by the Affordable Care Act.
Tax Planning for College
As a parent with college-bound children, you are likely concerned with setting up a financial plan to fund future college costs. If your children are already college age, your goal is to pay for current or imminent college bills. This alert addresses both of these concerns by suggesting several approaches that seek to take maximum advantage of tax benefits to minimize your expenses. (Please note that the following suggestions are strictly related to tax benefits. You may have non-tax-related concerns that make the suggestions inappropriate.)
Tax Aspects of a Parent Entering a Nursing Home
When a parent enters a nursing home, are amounts paid for long-term medical care, including amounts paid to the nursing home, deductible? What about insurance premiums covering the cost of long-term care including nursing home expenses (for the part of the year before your parent enters the nursing home)? Also to be considered is if the gain on the sale of a parent’s home will qualify for the $250,000 exclusion. These questions and other considerations are addressed in detail below.
August 1, 2014/Furniture Insights
August 2014 Furniture Insights
In June 2014, new orders increased 5 percent over June 2013, according to our latest survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors. New orders fell 8 percent from May as is somewhat typical as we move into summer and holidays.
