Tap the Brakes: Cadillac Tax Delayed, But Challenges Remain

Tap the Brakes: Cadillac Tax Delayed, But Challenges Remain

As 2015 was winding down, Congress pushed back the effective date of the “Cadillac tax” two years. The much-debated provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will now take effect on January 1, 2020, instead of January 1, 2018. As originally conceived, the Cadillac tax was supposed to affect only particularly generous, or “luxury,” health care plans. But many analysts believe it will, either immediately or eventually, impact quite a few “nonluxury” plans as well. For employers, the immediate road ahead is now free of a particularly looming threat. But, before you get too excited, tap the brakes: There are still plenty of health care challenges with which to contend. Deductibility of the Tax Most Cadillac tax opponents hope that, when the delayed 2020 effective date draws near, Congress will do away with it entirely. And they just might get their wish. There’s much opposition in Congress to the provision, and now opponents outside of government have two more years to press for full repeal. But, even if the Cadillac tax isn’t fully repealed, the 40% excise levy will now be a pretax expense when it goes into effect. This change was folded into the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016. Threshold Index Reform Another bit of good news is that the indexing of the Cadillac tax triggering thresholds will continue, even as the effective date of the provision itself is delayed. Critics of the original indexing formula complained that it wouldn’t have reflected the actual increases in the cost of health care benefits. And this disparity was highlighted in an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation last year. As background, the value of employer-sponsored coverage for Cadillac tax purposes includes not only the health care plan itself, but also: Employer and employee contributions to Flexible Spending Accounts, Employer (and possibly employee; this question is unresolved) contributions to Health Savings Accounts, On-site medical clinics, and Many other forms of coverage. The Kaiser study projected that, by 2018, when Cadillac tax thresholds were scheduled to be $10,200 for self-only coverage and $27,500 for other than self-only coverage, 26% of employers would have faced Cadillac tax penalties if they didn’t make substantial plan design changes. This percentage was projected to rise to 42% by 2028. So, in addition to pushing back the effective date to 2020, Congress authorized the Comptroller General of the United States and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to analyze whether the indexing formula can be made more accurate. Cost-saving Opportunities For now, employers still face the same pressure that they would have faced even if Congress hadn’t acted: keeping their health care costs from escalating ever higher. Many forward-looking organizations are focusing on the following cost-saving opportunities: Redoubling efforts to improve employee health. Newer plan designs — such as integrated health care models that tie together basic medical services with dental, vision, behavioral health and disability management — hold promise for cutting costs through improved care coordination. Imposing spousal surcharges. By applying higher cost-sharing formulas, many employers are discouraging spousal coverage when a spouse can be covered under another employer’s plan. Exploring defined-contribution plan design. Some employers are looking to set fixed limits on their shares of employees’ health costs, as they do in the retirement plan realm with 401(k) plans. The challenge, of course, is doing so without violating the ACA’s minimum value requirements. Emphasizing employee engagement. Many employers are bolstering efforts to motivate employees to assume greater responsibility for choosing their health care providers on the basis of quality data and reasonable costs. The Necessity of Balance The delay of the Cadillac tax’s imposition gives you some breathing room in evaluating and designing your health care plan. And the possibility of its permanent repeal should give you some hope. But, in the meantime, the burden of staying compliant with a myriad of other ACA provisions remains heavy. Work closely with your financial and benefits advisers to balance the necessity of providing meaningful benefits to your employees with the business imperative of managing the costs of doing so.

IRS Notice 2015-87 Addresses Many Aspects of the ACA The IRS issued Notice 2015-87 late last year to provide guidance on how various provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) apply to employer-sponsored health plans. The guidance, which includes 26 questions and answers, is generally applicable to plan years beginning on or after December 16, 2015, though it can be relied on for earlier periods. Let’s look at some highlights.   Final IRS rules on Premium Tax Credits The IRS has released final regulations addressing individuals’ eligibility for the ACA’s premium tax credit. The regs cover a number of important points of which employers should be aware. Areas covered include: Wellness program incentives. The regulations finalize the rule that incentives under a nondiscriminatory wellness program that reduce either cost-sharing or premiums generally aren’t taken into account as amounts paid by the plan for purposes of determining the plan’s minimum value or affordability — unless the program is designed to prevent or reduce tobacco use. Thus, wellness incentives are taken into account for affordability and minimum value only if they relate to tobacco use, in which case it’s assumed that the employee qualifies for the incentive. Employer contributions to HRAs. The final regulations retain rules that treat amounts newly made available for the current plan year under an integrated HRA as follows: Amounts that may be used only for cost-sharing (and not for paying premiums) are taken into account in determining minimum value, and Amounts that may be used for paying premiums are taken into account in determining a plan’s affordability, but not for determining minimum value. HRA contributions are taken into account only if the HRA and the primary employer-sponsored coverage are offered by the same employer. In addition, employer contributions to an HRA reduce an employee’s required contribution (or count toward providing minimum value) only to the extent the amount of the contribution is required under the terms of the plan or is determinable within a reasonable time before the employee must decide whether to enroll. Employer contributions to cafeteria plans. For purposes of affordability, the final regulations adopt the rule that an employee’s required contribution is reduced by employer contributions under a cafeteria plan that: 1) may not be taken as a taxable benefit, 2) may be used to pay for minimum essential coverage, and 3) may be used only to pay for medical care within the meaning of Internal Revenue Code Section 213. Postemployment coverage. The regulations provide that an individual who may enroll in COBRA or similar state continuation coverage is considered eligible for minimum essential coverage only for months that the individual is enrolled in the coverage. They further clarify that this rule applies only to former employees (not to current employees with reduced hours) and extend the rule to retiree coverage. Thus, an individual who may enroll in retiree coverage is considered eligible for minimum essential coverage only for the months the individual is enrolled in the coverage. Employer Contributions When required employee contributions to buy employer-sponsored coverage aren’t “affordable,” as defined under the ACA, employees are potentially eligible for premium tax credits and applicable large employers (ALEs) may face liability under the “play or pay” provision. The guidance explains how employer contributions affect employees’ required contributions for the purposes of the affordability requirement. Generally, employer contributions reduce employees’ required contributions as long as they can be used only for medical expenses (including coverage under an employer-sponsored health plan). They can’t reduce the required employee contributions if they can be received as taxable benefits or used to buy non-health benefits. (However, the guidance includes a special rule for employers subject to certain federal prevailing wage laws.) Transitional relief allows employers to treat certain employer contributions not satisfying the general principle as reducing an employee’s required contribution for purposes of the play-or-pay provision for plan years beginning before 2017 if requirements set forth in Notice 2015-87 are met. Unconditional Opt-out Payments Future proposed regulations are expected to address unconditional opt-out payments. These are available to employees declining employer-provided coverage if not conditioned on satisfaction of other requirements (such as proof of coverage from a spouse’s employer). The guidance stipulates that unconditional opt-out payments will likely be treated as increasing employees’ required contributions for employer-sponsored coverage. The IRS generally anticipates that this rule will apply only after final regulations are issued, except that it will apply on adoption to unconditional opt-out arrangements adopted after December 16, 2015. Until the rule applies, employers aren’t required to treat opt-out payments as increasing employees’ required contributions for purposes of reporting or complying with the play-or-pay provision. Because employers using the transitional relief may report on IRS Form 1095-C a lower required employee contribution than applies for determining eligibility for premium tax credits, employees enrolled in coverage via a Health Insurance Marketplace may be found ineligible for advance payment of premium tax credits even though their household income is within the eligibility range. Thus, Notice 2015-87 encourages employers using the transitional relief to notify employees that they can obtain pertinent information about their required contributions using the employer contact telephone number on Form 1095-C. Adjustments to Affordability Standard Under the ACA, “affordability” is determined by whether the coverage offered costs an employee more than 9.5% of his or her annual household income. But there have been some adjustments to this standard. In 2015, the IRS began indexing the percentage of household income that employees may be required to pay for employer-sponsored coverage when determining affordability under the play-or-pay provision. The guidance indicates that indexing applies to all provisions under the ACA that reference the 9.5% standard — including the three affordability safe harbors of the play-or-pay provision. The IRS intends to amend the associated regulations but, in the interim, employers may rely on the indexed percentages (9.56% for 2015 and 9.66% for 2016). Penalty Amounts and Relief Notice 2015-87 confirms the indexed penalty amounts for ALEs under the play-or-pay provision. For 2015 and 2016, here are the penalty amounts: $2,080 and $2,160, respectively, for failure to offer minimum essential coverage to at least 95% of all full-time employees. This penalty is per full-time employee in excess of 30 full-time employees. $3,120 and $3,240, respectively, for offering coverage that isn’t deemed affordable or doesn’t provide at least minimum value to at least one full-time employee. The penalty is per full-time employee receiving a premium tax credit. However, the penalty is also calculated under the method for failure to offer minimum essential coverage. If the calculation under that method results in a lower penalty, the employer pays that lower amount. Adjustments for future years will be posted on the IRS.gov website. Regarding penalty relief, the guidance states that, for returns filed or statements furnished to employees in 2016 (relating to 2015 coverage), penalties for incorrect or incomplete returns or statements won’t be imposed on ALEs that can demonstrate good-faith efforts to comply with the reporting requirements. This relief isn’t available to ALEs that fail to timely file (or furnish a statement) or cannot show a good-faith effort to comply. But the regular IRS rules allowing penalty relief upon a showing of reasonable cause may apply. Similar relief applies to coverage reporting. Definition of “Hour of Service” Notice 2015-87 explains how the “hour of service” rules under the Department of Labor’s regulations apply when determining full-time status under the play-or-pay provision. For example, an hour of service doesn’t include hours after termination of employment or hours paid solely to comply with a workers’ compensation law. But short- or long-term disability leaves generally result in credited hours of service for periods during which the recipient retains employee status and receives disability benefits directly or indirectly funded by the employer. Notably, the guidance states that disability benefits from coverage bought with after-tax employee dollars won’t give rise to hours of service. Moreover, the Department of Labor’s 501-hour limit on crediting paid, nonworked hours doesn’t apply under the play-or-pay provision. The IRS intends to propose these clarifications as regulations under the play-or-pay provision, effective as of December 16, 2015. Notes on HRAs According to Notice 2015-87, Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and other employer payment plans generally can’t be used to buy individual health insurance policies, with narrow exceptions. The guidance affirms that retiree-only HRAs can be used to buy individual coverage — even if the HRA balances include amounts credited when the account holders were current employees covered by integrated HRAs. Similarly, Notice 2015-87 affirms that HRAs and other employer payment plans can satisfy the ACA’s mandates if they limit the purchase or reimbursement of individual coverage to policies that provide only excepted benefits (for example, dental coverage). But HRAs other than retiree-only plans will fail to be integrated — and, thus, fail to comply with the ACA — if they can be used to buy individual coverage that isn’t limited to excepted benefits. This is the case even if, in practice: Employees use the HRAs only to buy policies that provide only excepted benefits, and The HRA provides that the individual policy purchases are authorized only when the account holder has other group coverage or after the other group coverage is lost. The guidance confirms that, if a cafeteria plan reimburses the cost of individual coverage (whether through salary reductions, flex credits or other employer contributions), the arrangement is an employer payment plan. Therefore, it can’t be integrated with the individual coverage and will fail to comply with the ACA unless the plan limits reimbursements to coverage that provides only excepted benefits. Last, Notice 2015-87 indicates that, if an HRA can reimburse family members’ expenses, they, too, must be covered by the employer’s other group health plan for their HRA benefit to be considered integrated. A transitional rule waives the coverage requirement for family members for plan years beginning before 2017 if requirements set forth in the guidance are met. The IRS doesn’t mention integration with the group health plan of another employer, which presumably remains available to satisfy the integration requirement for HRAs that reimburse family members’ expenses. Health FSA Carryovers Qualifying Health Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) need not offer COBRA coverage unless the qualified beneficiary’s account is “underspent” when a COBRA-qualifying event occurs. In other words, the amount available for reimbursement for the remainder of the plan year must exceed the COBRA premiums for that period. The guidance explains that Health FSA carryovers are included when determining the amount available for reimbursement. In contrast, Notice 2015-87 also states that carryovers aren’t included when determining the COBRA premium, which is based solely on the employee’s salary reduction election and any additional employer contributions. The guidance provides that, even though qualifying Health FSAs aren’t obligated to provide COBRA beyond the end of the plan year, if a Health FSA allows carryovers for non-COBRA beneficiaries, it must allow them on the same terms for similarly situated COBRA beneficiaries. Thus, at the end of the plan year, a qualified beneficiary could potentially carry over up to $500 of unused amounts until the end of the applicable COBRA maximum coverage period, with no premium due. But Health FSAs may limit carryovers to individuals who have elected to participate in the Health FSA in the next plan year and may require that carryover amounts be forfeited if not used within a specified period of time, such as one year. Review the Guidance As you can see, Notice 2015-87 goes into great detail about many aspects of the ACA. It’s particularly important for any employer that’s currently subject to the play-or-pay provision — or that could be in the future — to review the guidance with its health care benefits adviser.

Can We Incentivize Employees With High Claims Costs to Opt Out? Question: Our company offers coverage under a self-insured major medical plan to full-time employees. Can we offer cash incentives to those with a history of high claims costs to opt out of our plan and buy individual policies instead? Answer: In a word, no. This idea was addressed in guidance jointly issued just last year by the IRS, the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services. The agencies stated that offering a choice between cash and enrollment in an employer’s standard group health plan constitutes prohibited health status discrimination under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) — if the offer is made to only employees with high claims risk. It may seem like you’re treating high-claims employees more favorably by giving them a choice between cash and coverage — especially now that the ACA guarantees availability of individual coverage without pre-existing condition exclusions. But the agencies don’t view this choice as permitted discrimination in favor of individuals who have adverse health conditions. In fact, according to the agencies, these employees have a greater effective cost of coverage because their cost is deemed to include the cash they’ll forgo if they elect to enroll in your plan. In addition, the cash-or-coverage offer is considered to be an eligibility rule that discourages plan participation based on a health factor. Additional Points of Concern Indeed, the agencies view these arrangements as discriminatory, regardless of whether: The cash payment is pretax or after-tax to the employee, The employer is involved in the selection or purchase of individual insurance policies, or The employee obtains any individual coverage. And because choosing between cash and tax-favored health coverage requires a cafeteria plan election, the agencies assert that imposing an additional cost to elect health coverage could result in prohibited discrimination under Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code. Note also that you couldn’t condition availability of any financial incentive (whether or not based on health or claims history) on the employee’s actual purchase of an individual insurance policy. Doing so creates an employer payment plan that violates the ACA’s prohibition on annual dollar limits, as well as the requirement to provide coverage of preventive services. Violating these provisions can result in substantial excise taxes. Moreover, the proposed incentive might raise concerns under HIPAA’s privacy rule if you’re considered to be using protected health information (in this case, health or claims history) for a purpose unrelated to plan administration (that is, to identify employees eligible for the cash incentive). Other federal laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, could also be implicated. Wrong Way When considering going this route with your health care plan, it’s best to imagine one of those “wrong way” signs you see while driving. Despite your good intentions, you’ll quickly find yourself headed straight for some serious compliance issues.

(Source: www.bizactions.com)

Do After-Hours Communications Qualify for Overtime Pay?

Prudent Tips on Tip Withholding

Prudent Tips on Tip Withholding

If your employees regularly receive tips, it is important to comply with the withholding requirements and pay your company’s fair share of employment taxes. Expensive penalties can be assessed on both employers and employees if the tip reporting rules are not followed.

Here‘s a brief summary of some of the requirements for federal income tax and FICA (Social Security and Medicare) withholding, as well as filing.

Income Tax Withholding 

You’re required to withhold federal income tax on an employee’s cash tips of $20 or more per month. The employee is generally supposed to report the tips to you by the tenth day of the month following the month of receipt.

Your company can elect to treat tips as supplemental wages. The tips can be reported in the regular payroll amount or subject to withholding at a flat rate of 25 percent.

FICA Withholding

If the employee’s cash tips do not exceed $20 in a calendar quarter, there is no FICA tax liability. However, any excess is subject to FICA. The same general rules apply to tips as wages. For instance, the Social Security portion of the tax applies to an annual “wage base” $118,500 for 2016 (and 2015). The 1.45 percent Medicare portion of the tax applies to all wages.

The employee’s share of Social Security tax is 6.2 percent and the Medicare portion is 1.45 percent. The same is true for the employer share of these two taxes.  

If you run a food or beverage establishment, you may be able to defray part of the cost of FICA through a special tax credit. Ask your payroll tax adviser if you are eligible for the 45B Credit, named for the section of the tax code it comes from.

Note: Reported tips are also subject to federal unemployment tax (FUTA). There are no income limits.

These withholding rules require the employer to collect income tax and FICA on reported tips unless the employee provides the necessary funds. If you can’t deduct the full amount from the employee’s regular wages – and the employee doesn’t otherwise provide the funds — the tax must be paid directly with the employee’s tax return. If you can collect only part of the amount due, apply what you collected first to FICA.

Filing Requirement

A business is generally required to file Form 8027, Employer’s Annual Information Return of Tip Income and Allocated Tips, for each establishment if: 

• Food or beverage is provided for consumption on the premises. 
• Tipping is a customary practice. 
• More than ten full-time employees are employed on a typical business day. The term “employee” isn’t limited to waiters and waitresses. It comprises everyone on the payroll, from cooks to dishwashers to musicians. 

Caution: Employees who don’t follow these tip reporting rules may be hit with a penalty equal to 50 percent of the FICA tax due in addition to paying the employer’s share of the tax.

(Source: www.bizactions.com)

Give Your Employee Handbook a Facelift

New Year, New Company

New Year, New Company

When it comes to the new year, it is common to see social media fill up with people claiming that it is a “New Year, New Me”, but how many really take that to heart? When it comes to owning a company, a new year, new me mentality can mean more than empty promises to eat less donuts. Planning on rejuvenating your company can lead to new new forms of income, along with increasing income from current endeavors. It may not even being about increasing profits as much as it is making the company run itself more effectively. Maybe you are thinking of bringing new more employees, or upgrade the equipment they use.

How capable are you of making these changes? Is it in your budget to start making improvements right away or should you hold off a bit first? While we can’t answer that complete question for you, we can help you with one important aspect of it. Vision H.R. is an outsourced payroll company that not only handles your payroll, but makes sure you stay informed about everything involving your payroll. With our regular reports, you can know exactly how much you are spending on payroll, including taxes.

Placing outsourcing payroll on your new year to-do list has a couple of benefits you should look at besides our regular reports.

• It’s easy to get started.
• It’s an affordable way to simplify running your business.
• Access to an experienced team of payroll specialist to answer your questions.

 

While this may not make a large change in the overall business, it is a good first step in changing how your company performs. It will free up time consuming responsibilities and give you room to explore more possibilities for your business. Along with payroll, Vision H.R. also has services to handle your human resource responsibilities. By taking advantage of our full range of our services, you will open new doors to all kinds of possibilities, while still being able to maintain the level of productivity your office currently has.

If you want to add some incentives to your employees for the new year such as health or retirement benefits, Vision H.R. can help to set up a benefits package that can include health insurance, dental insurance, retirement plans, and other forms of benefits for your employees. An employee is most productive when they feel they are getting more for their work. By offering them affordable health care options, you are paving the way to a more content, motivated, and productive work environment. If you do expand your company, this will help your employees to handle the extra work.

Once you have your payroll, human resource management, and benefits handled by the team of Vision H.R. you have an open path to expanding your company even further. Don’t worry about Vision keeping up with your payroll either. As your company grows, Vision H.R. will grow to meet the needs and demands of your payroll and human resource management. We are dedicated to being there every step of the way, no matter how many employees your company has. If you are ready to take the first step into the new year, then contact Vision H.R. at (877) 641-0012 or visit Vision-hr.com to get a free quote.

Payroll New Smyrna Beach

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

Obamacare Vs. Medicaid and Medicare

Obamacare Vs. Medicaid and Medicare

With all the talk about healthcare, obamacare, the ACA act, and medicaid, it may be easy for some people to confuse just what each one does when it comes to health insurance. For those who are not up to date on the topic of universal healthcare, Obamacare, or it’s more official name, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is designed to help people get healthcare at an affordable price. It’s goal is to make quality insurance coverage more available for more citizens in the United States. Many mistake the Affordable Care Act as an attempt to supply free healthcare insurance, when in reality it simply makes it more affordable.  

So what is the difference between the ACA and the other government sponsored healthcare programs called Medicaid and Medicare? We will break down each of the three and specify what each one is designed to accomplish in comparison to the other.

ACA: As we mentioned earlier, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is designed to make healthcare more affordable for more American citizens. It accomplishes this by creating laws that prohibit an insurance company from dropping your coverage if you become sick or injured, eliminate the possibility of being charged more because of a pre-existing condition or discriminatory reason such as gender, and protect against unjustified hikes in insurance rates. There are, however, penalties for not having health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. If you do not have health coverage, and make more than a certain amount a year, you have to pay a fine on your taxes. It also requires that large scale employers offer health insurance coverage to their employees.

Medicaid: Medicaid, in contrast to Obamacare, is not designed for anyone to take part in. Medicaid is designed to offer either free, or low cost health care coverage to those in need. While the ACA is done through the federal government, Medicaid is handled by the state, meaning the laws and regulations depend on your location. Those who are eligible for Medicaid include:

• Pregnant Mothers: If you are having a child, regardless if you are married or single, you may qualify for medicaid for you and your child.

• Parent of a Minor: If you have a child already born and is under the age of 18, you may qualify for medicaid coverage depending on your financial situation, or if your child requires nursing home care or home care due to a sickness, medicaid may be able to help as well.

• Disabilities: If you are blind, deaf, or otherwise physically disabled, you may be eligible to apply for medicaid. This is also extended to elderly individuals who can not afford the premiums associated with medicare.

• Low Income Individuals: If you do not fall under any of these circumstances, you may still be able to qualify for medicaid if you are in a low-income situation.

 

Medicare: Medicare is a program designed  to help people over the age of 65, along with some younger individuals who have certain disabilities. While you may have to pay a premium, the main cost of your Medicare is paid for through your working years. Part of what is taken out of your paycheck each week now is what pays for your Medicare once you reach retirement age. Currently, Medicare benefits come in four parts.

• Part A: Hospital Care. This part pays for time spent in a medical facility.

• Part B: This part covers tests and procedures, meaning what happens to you while in the hospital or medical facility. Part B coverage requires a premium.

• Part C: Done as an alternative to normal Medicare coverage, Part C is known as Medicare Advantage plans, offer the benefits of Part A, B, and D, and are administered through private insurance companies.

• Part D: Part D covers prescription drug coverage. Part D is a required benefit of Medicare, unless you obtain it from a different source.

 

If you don’t have health insurance, or want to extend the possibility of offering health insurance to your employees, Vision H.R. can help set up health insurance packages that include basic health, vision, or dental coverage. We can also help you understand how medicare is taken from your employees paychecks so you can better explain it to them. These are just a small part of the services offered by the Vision H.R. team. We also offer payroll services, human resource management, staffing solutions, and management training for places like Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Deland, and Lake Mary. Contact us at (877)- 6412-0012 or visit vision-hr.com for a free quote today.

Daytona Health Insurance

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

Figuring Out Payroll

FIGURING OUT PAYROLL

A person has to do what it takes to survive, unless you own a business of course. Then you have to do what it takes for you to survive along with your employees. How do you make sure that you have enough to make it while also making sure your employees are taken care of? It’s a difficult system to create with payroll being such a regular expense with so many requirements surrounding it. Even if you outsource it to a company like Vision H.R. that handles Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, and Deland, and Deltona Payroll services, you still have to decide how much of your revenue to dedicate to payroll, and how to schedule your employees. The final decision isn’t just how much can you pay your employees, it’s also how productive you want your employees to be.

A satisfied employee is a productive employee. Incentives keep an employee working hard, which doesn’t always mean giving them extra. Just giving them a decent wage and decent hours will keep most employees happy. When an employee is being productive, he is making your company more money. They are getting more sales, creating more product, helping more people, giving you a greater return for your investment in them. So when it comes to managing payroll, you need to make sure you can afford to keep them working using the basic cost vs. result formula, (cost of wages and expenses of an employee vs. the revenue made from their work) it’s imperative to make sure they are also in a spot that they will not lose productivity.

This is why you need a payroll model that has a sound foundation yet has room to adapt as needed. There are different business models that many people use to decide their payroll. Some stick to a direct sales percentage, meaning they use a certain percentage of their overall sales to pay employees. For example, they decide they will use 16% of their sales to use for payroll. If they made $250,000 in sales that year, $40,000 of it will be used for payroll. Other companies follow a pure adaptive business model based on what work is needed to be completed and how much revenue is expected to be received from it.

A few larger companies can tend to break payroll down even further, planning schedules and pay scale for different jobs. For instance, in a retail store a cashier may be more needed than a stocker, so more of the payroll will go to the cashiers. Other companies try to keep wages the same regardless of position, adjusting wages according to time spent with the company and the work done instead of the need of a position.

With all these possibilities, it can be difficult to determine which business model of payroll is best for your own business. While Vision H.R. can not make the final decision, they can use their knowledge of payroll along with their experience helping numerous other clients in helping to decide the best way to do your payroll. If you just started your business, or are looking at restructuring your payroll, make a smart choice and get a free quote from Vision-hr.com.

Deltona Payroll Services

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

The Elections and You

The Elections and You

It is a time of political uncertainty in America as we enter an election like never before. The race to the oval office use to be just politicians and their promises. This time around though, we have politicians, celebrities, and corporate powerhouses in the running, and even a popstar promising to run for 2020. With all this variety in presidential candidates, the only thing that we can count on is it being an interesting race. The question you need to ask though, is how is this going to affect your business? Bernie Sanders, a popular candidate, believes that “anyone who works a 40 hour work week should not live in poverty”. This indicates some kind of change being made to either how American are being paid, getting taxed, or directly influencing the cost of living.

Of course, this change will be gradual with the elections still being in just the campaigning stages. However, once the changes do start coming, you are going to have three options when it comes to dealing with the changes. You can either try and keep up with them yourself, put your payroll in the hands of an competent payroll company like Vision H.R., or fall behind and deal with the consequences.

Even without the elections happening, payroll laws and regulations are always subject to change. Sometimes they are sudden and noticeable, like a raise in the nation’s minimum wage, while others are small and can easily slip right by without being noticed. Some may be for a business of a certain size and not even concern you. The important thing to remember is that regardless of what the change is, it is important to make sure that your company is implementing it into your payroll. Otherwise small change can turn into an expensive fine that you don’t want to pay. This is where Vision H.R. becomes a valuable asset to any company. Instead of trying to learn and understand payroll laws and regulations while trying to run your business at the same time, you can pass the work off to Vision H.R. Being a payroll company, their job is to stay current with new trends and regulations so you don’t have to.

Another important item to remember is that just because something a president does is not directly affecting your payroll, it may call for an increase or decrease in the amount of taxes taken from you and your employees, or can end up affecting how much your company is making. If anything changes on the price of oil for instance, it will also affect how much money some gas stations are making, which can move on to affect an employee’s wage and hours. You have to be able to make these adjustments to your payroll in a timely manner, or you may end up with some aggravated employees.

Luckily, any change to laws and regulations have to go through a process before getting approved and going into effect, so there is time to implement them into your company without needing sudden changes in most instances. This also gives Vision H.R. time to explain to your any changes that have to be made to your payroll so that you can stay on top of your company and feel confident in what is happening in your payroll.

Regardless of who you are voting in as president in 2016, it is important to make sure you are prepared for any changes that they may make. Stay up to date with Vision H.R., a experienced Palm Coast payroll services company.

Contact Vision H.R. at (877) 641-0012 or visit Vision-hr.com for a free quote today.

Palm Coast Payroll Services

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

2016 ACA Appliance

 

2016 ACA Appliance

It may only be October, but November 1st starts open enrollment for a 2016 health care plan under the ACA, and you only have until January 31st before the enrollment period ends. If you want to get enrolled in a health care plan, you either need to be registered by January 31st or have some form of exception that extends the time you have to enroll, which we will talk about further into this article. If you are a business owner, it is recommended that you make this information easily accessible for your employees, either through a newsletter or through a physical medium such as memos or at an office meeting. If you have your own health care plan they can enroll in, rather through yourself or set up by a company such as Vision H.R. make sure they know how to get enrolled in it.

When it comes to enrollment, the earlier the better. The sooner you get enrolled, the sooner your coverage will take effect. If you wait until the last minute, you may find your health care plan not taking effect until March 1, 2016. To learn the important dates associated with early enrollment, see below.

November 1st: Open Enrollment Begins.

December 15th: Last day to enroll in a health care plan to have it begin by January 1st.

January 1st: Coverage for people who enrolled by December 15th begins.

January 15th: Last day to enroll if you want your plan to take effect on Feb 1st.

January 31st: Last day for enrollment.

February 1st: Coverage begins for People who enrolled between December 16th and January 15th.

March 1st: Anyone who applied after January 15th has their coverage start today.

(It should be noted that insurance programs such as Medicaid, CHIP, and SHOP have no limited enrollment period)

There are some exceptions that will let you enroll after the cut-off date. These can include marriage, having a child, or losing another form of coverage. If you fail to enroll within the deadline, and don’t meet one of the special exceptions, the fine for not having a health care plan in 2016 is expected to be more than the one in 2015. In 2014, the fine was $95 per adult and $47.50 per child, up to $285 for a family, or 1% of your household. In 2015, it is going up to $325 per adult, $162.50 per child, to a maximum of $975 or 2% of your yearly household income, depending on which is higher.

If you have questions on a workplace based healthcare plan, or about the fees associated with not having a healthcare plan in effect, Vision H.R. have experts waiting to assist. Vision H.R. can answer your questions, help set up a company healthcare plan, and show you how to relay the information to your employees. For a free quote, or for more information, visit us at VisionHR.com.

Affordable Care Act Appliance

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

Social Media in the Office

Social Media in the Office

We all know someone who is always on Facebook, you may even be someone who is always on Facebook, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, even if you’re at work! That’s right, this article is going to advocate using social media in the workplace, but don’t get too excited, we are going to list a few negatives in there as well. The trending world lives and breathes two words, Mobile and Social. If we can’t watch it, share it, or take a selfie with it, we get bored of it rather quickly. Social Media, noticeably Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have all evolved in the recent years from a friendly platform to keep in contact with friends, to a full blown business venture, to the point it could be argued that a company may live or die depending on their Social media presence.

So knowing how prominent social media is in the modern business world, the question comes up about how to better regulate and implement Social Media usage in the office. Of course employees can’t be taking selfies when there are customers waiting to talk to them, but what about between customers or duties. If an employee has no customers present or is not in the middle of an important project, should you tell them to put the phone away, or turn a blind eye? The best answer here is to do both.

Recent studies performed have shown that limited social media privileges can actually boost both productivity and morale in a work environment, but only to a limit. You know how a workday can affect the mind, working eight hours focusing on a single project, sometimes we need a distraction. A quick scroll through our friend’s Instagram photos is a easy way for our mind to catch a break. We can change our focus for a few moments and clear our mind so we can return to the job with new energy and perspective, but what if we take more than a few moments?

Studies also show that too much freedom with social media and smartphone usage can begin to deter a person from completing their job, and this is when it comes time for you as a business owner to step in, or have a manager do so for you. While this may mean a little more work on your end, there are more benefits to allowing social media into the office to consider that we will talk about.

Benefits of Social Media in the Office

 

• Productivity: We spoke earlier about how social media can increase productivity by giving us a small distraction, lifting morale as well.
  Helpful Articles: Having a company Facebook account that your employees can see is a great way to share articles and news stories that are relevant to the job.
• Reviews: Along with having a company Facebook for articles, social media accounts are also great ways for employees to have access to reviews and comments made by customers, presenting grounds to see how they can improve.
• Unify the Office: With Facebook, employees can be more connected to each other, creating a more familiar work environment, along with open new channels for communication between employees.

 

Of course, each company would have different standards and regulations for social media usage at work. A store or restaurant would have more limits on it’s usage than an office due to the amount of customer interaction, whereas someone working in an office environment with a PC would have more opportunities to take a quick media break, as long as they don’t abuse the privileges. While these things must be regularized, it is important to note there are some practices that should be avoided.

Things to Avoid

 

• Blocking Pages: If your company uses a wifi that your employees can use, don’t block pages that are popular such as social media sites or media entertainment sites such as YouTube or Vine. This can cause an employee to have a claustrophobic feeling with their job. (Blocking websites with explicit or adult content is however, perfectly fine).
• Taking Devices: Demanding an employee hands over their device can make an employee feel discontent, and make an manager or business owner look controlling or dominating, creating an unwelcoming feeling work environment.

 

If you are ready to open your company to the social media generation, it may be time to teach your managers a few new things to go with it, this is where a company such as Vision H.R. can help. Along with offering payroll and human resource management services, Vision H.R. also specializes in management training, including how to interact with employees well keeping current with new trends. Visit the Vision H.R. website for a free quote, and check their news page for more articles with helpful information and ideas for running your business.

Management Training

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts