How are people handling the new 2012 requirement to add the employer provided cost of health care onto w-2 forms? We are trying to have ADP add it each payroll so that it does not need to be calculated at year end but it is a cumbersome process for handling exceptions. Are most waiting till year end 2012 to add it manually?
Health Care Act w-2 reporting
Answers
At this point, my plan is to wait until year end. Although we're a small company with about 35 participants, we have two different health plans with slightly different employer contribution amounts that renews mid-year - when the amounts will change. I think it will be easier just to wait until year end and record what happened after the fact.
Pardon the question, is the W2 reporting going to be statistical only or will it be reported as a taxable benefit to the employee. It's been so long since Obamacare was announced and so much noise about changes and challenges to the laws, it's a bit hard to keep track.
Can anyone cite any official sources? Thanks!
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Len--see the IRS website for notice #2011-28 "providing interim guidance that generally applies beginning with 2012 Forms W-2 (the forms required for the calendar year 2012 that employers generally are required to provide employees in January 2013). Employers are not required to report the cost of health coverage on any forms required to be furnished to employees before January 2013." At this point the inofrmation is being gathered for mostyly analytical purposes but it will serve to identify in the future those who owe "cadillac" tax as well as provide a base line for generating tax revenue some day.
My understanding from the original law was that this was statistical only. My practice has always been to track this information and provide to staff when doing their annual salary adjustments (most companies I worked for kept these separate from annual reviews). I would provide a summary sheet which showed how much we contributed on their behalf for all of their benefits. We are not on a calendar year renewal for our medical benefits, so keeping a spreadsheet and then inputting the total in the correct field at year-end is what we are planning.
My peers locally all believe the statistical approach is the first step that might lead to taxing the premiums in the future.
In case you are not familiar and you offer long term disability for your staff without requesting they pay you back, there is a potentially huge
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That is a great idea. I'll have to mention it to my
Thanks Sara, I am sure others will find that helpful too.
Sara, I agree with your peers that tracking this information is the first step to taxing the benefits. Once the numbers are available, it will be very easy for future politicians to caclulate the amount of tax dollars that are going 'uncollected'.
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