insurance - Linkenheimer LLP CPAs & Advisors

Tax-Free Fringe Benefits Help Small Businesses and Their Employees

In today’s tightening job market, to attract and retain the best employees, small businesses need to offer not only competitive pay, but also appealing fringe benefits. Benefits that are tax-free are especially attractive to employees. Let’s take a quick look at some popular options.

Insurance

Businesses can provide their employees with various types of insurance on a tax-free basis. Here are some of the most common:

Health insurance. If you maintain a health care plan for employees, coverage under the plan isn’t taxable to them. Employee contributions are excluded from income if pretax coverage is elected under a cafeteria plan. Otherwise, such amounts are included in their wages, but may be deductible on a limited basis as an itemized deduction.

Disability insurance. Your premium payments aren’t included in employees’ income, nor are your contributions to a trust providing disability benefits. Employees’ premium payments (or […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2018-10-11T18:11:23+00:00October 11th, 2018|employer, expensing, medical deduction, New Tax Laws, tax, tax implications|0 Comments

Insurance Tips and Rebuilding Questions

As we look into the future and the rebuilding of our county begins, we are faced with uncertainty and questions. We have compiled some common insurance questions and tips and hope that these will help throughout the process. If you have any questions, please let us know. We are also hosting three seminars in November on disaster relief and the impact on taxes and your business. For more info or too sign up, please click here.

1. Be pro-active in the claim process and keep good notes.
2. You’re not on a level playing field when you’re dealing with an insurance claim.
3. Don’t pad or exaggerate your claim.
4. Give your insurance company a chance to do the right thing, but don’t mistake a friendly representative for a friend.
5. Document and support your claim with proof, details and estimates.
6. Present clear requests in writing that explain what you need, when you need it, and why you’re entitled to it.
7. Think of your insurance claim as a business negotiation—you’re dealing with a for-profit company.
8. Don’t sign legal documents without consulting with a qualified attorney. There are many local attorneys who […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2020-09-03T20:04:50+00:00November 8th, 2017|Community, disaster, relief|0 Comments

Payments to Employees Affected by the Local Fires

During these tragic times businesses may want to help employees affected by the local fires. The purpose of the following information is to highlight some tax efficient opportunities to help employees affected by the local fires which were declared a qualified disaster by President Trump. IRC section 139 allow employers to provide qualified disaster relief payments to employees that have incurred unreimbursed expenses due to a qualified disaster (such as the local fires) and have those payments excluded from the employees gross income and included as deductible expense for the business making the payment. For the payments to be considered qualified disaster relief payments, they should be for either items i. or ii. below, but only to the extent not already covered by insurance.

Reasonable and necessary personal, family, living, or funeral expenses incurred as a result of a disaster. This would include expenses related to loss of use.
Reasonable and necessary expenses incurred for the repair or rehabilitation of a personal residence or repair or replacement of its contents to the extent that the need for such repair, rehabilitation, or replacement is attributable to a qualified disaster.

Other items to point out:

To […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2020-09-03T20:04:51+00:00October 19th, 2017|business, Community, disaster, Fire Relief Info, relief, tax|0 Comments