Tax and financial advice from the Silicon Valley expert.

What’s happening for small business health insurance?

The interview on Financial Insider Weekly to be broadcast in San Jose and Campbell this Friday, January 13, is with Don Pollard, CLU, ChFC of Advanced Professionals.   Our interview subject is “Health insurance for small businesses update.”  The interview will be broadcast at 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time on CreaTV, Comcast Channel 15 in San Jose and Campbell, and will be broadcast as streaming video at the same time at www.creatvsj.org. You can find broadcast times for other San Francisco Bay Area cities and past episodes at www.financialinsiderweekly.com.

Small employer Obamacare penalty relief

Great news for small employers that reimbursed their employees for the cost of individual health coverage during 2014!

The IRS has announced it will waive the $100 per day, per employee penalty for violating rules under Health Care Reform under Internal Revenue Code Section 4980D in this situation. (IRS Notice 2015-17, February 18, 2015.) The penalty, which could be $36,500 per applicable employee is very onerous. Many tax return preparers will also be relieved that they won’t have to give this terrible news to their clients.

The employers that qualify for the waiver aren’t required to file IRS Form 8928 for 2014.

The relief doesn’t apply to “Applicable Large Employers.”

The IRS is providing this relief to give small employers time to either discontinue the practice of paying for individual medical insurance for their employees or putting a qualified group health plan in place. The waiver applies to payments up to June 30, 2015.

Tax and financial advice from the Silicon Valley expert.