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Do The Hardest Thing First And The Rest Will Be Easy
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated - send to: GregReid@AlwaysGood.com Do The Hardest Thing First...
How To Start Investing For Financial Independence, Part 2
Last week, we started a multi-part series about how to go from being a beginning investor to being “financially independent” in a steady and predictable way. Many, many people want to overly complicate this process so let's briefly, let's recap...
Personal Training: 3 Keys to Training Clients in Their Homes
When considering your options as a personal trainer, one of the very first things to decide is WHERE you are going to train your clients. The most obvious answer for most trainers is to get a job at a local fitness facility and train clients there....
Review: Small Business Taxes Made Easy
Publishing Guidelines: You may freely reprint this article in a print or online magazine, e-zine, or newsletter provided you leave the byline intact, don’t change the content (except for grammar/punctuation), and make The Dabbling Mum web address...
Working With Your Real Estate Attorney
Purchasing or selling a home will probably be one of your largest and most important financial transactions. Before signing a contract to purchase or sell a home, both buyer and seller should consult an attorney to assure that the real estate...
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Cafeteria Plan Employee Benefit Should be Another Feather in Your Benefit Program's Cap
IRS code allows for employers to implement a pre-tax Section 125 Cafeteria Plan as an employee benefit. This plan allows for unreimbursed insurance expenses to be paid pre-tax. Examples include insurance premiums, doctors office co-pays, prescription co-pays, eye exams, eye glasses, contact lenses, laser eye surgery, orthodontics, and more...
Implementing a Section 125 Cafeteria Plan will strengthen your benefits program, save your company FICA taxes, and save participating employees 17% to 40% in taxes (depending on their income tax bracket). What other benefits can you implement that strengthen your benefits package and you can do so with little or zero out-of-pocket dollars?
If your employees are paying any portion of the monthly insurance premiums, then to save FICA taxes, implement the Premium Only Plan (POP) portion of a pre-tax 125 plan. A POP allows for employees to pay their portion of the group insurance premiums on a pre-tax basis and is a good start to saving taxes for you and your employees. You will save FICA taxes while saving your employee 17% to 40% on dollars they're already paying.
With a POP there is no real ongoing administration as you'll use payroll to take care of the dollar flow's. Discrimination testing is a requirement that will need to be performed at least once at the beginning of each plan year to ensure your plan is in compliance.
To take your pre-tax 125 plan to the next level means implementing the Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) portion of a pre-tax 125 plan. Generally, there are two FSA accounts including a Medical FSA (medical / dental / vision) and a Dependent / Elder Daycare FSA.
These FSA accounts will allow for the unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses to be paid on a pre-tax basis. Examples include dependent daycare, office co-pays, prescription co-pays, eye exams, eyeglasses, contacts, orthodontics, and more.
These flexible spending accounts (FSA) are an easy way to supplement any gaps in your existing benefits program, save money for you and your
employees, and is a great morale booster.
If you're a small employer that doesn't have a dental or vision plan because of costs. Implementing the FSA will at least allow for your employees who have these types of out-of-pocket expenses to pay them on a pre-tax basis. Wouldn't it make your employees happy to be able to save 17% to 40% on a $5,000 orthodontic expense for a family member? That would equal a $1,250 tax savings for an employee in the 25% tax bracket. Not to mention, it would save you over $380 in FICA taxes as well.
The FSA accounts are where the administration hassles of receiving claims, verifying claims as eligible expenses, answering employee questions, reimbursing claims, etc. are seen. Which may lead you to consider outsourcing your ongoing administration through a qualified third party administrator. If you've only got a few participants in the FSA in-house administration is something you can probably handle, but with monthly minimum administrative fees outsourcing is pretty economical.
Partnering with a qualified Cafeteria Plan Administrator such as BusinessPlans, Inc. (BPI) - myCafeteriaPlan will provide you and your employees with online account access 24-hours a day. As an employer, your 24-hour Internet access allows you to query reports, add employees, term employees, and check the status of your plan around the clock when you want and need your plan information.
Every organization has limits on the resources it has available for use. Outsourcing will allow your company to focus and redirect its resources; most often people resources, from non-core activities to profit gaining activities.
About the Author
David Turner is Vice President at BusinessPlans, Inc. (BPI)- myCafeteriaPlan, which has been a third party administrator for over 14 years for pre-tax section 125 cafeteria FSA plans, section 105 healthcare reimbursement arrangements (HRA), and section 132 qualified transportation (Transit) plans. Visit www.myCafeteriaPlan.com or call 800.865.6543 for more information.
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| The US government agency responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement. Includes income tax forms, instructions, and agency publications. |
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| Governments use different kinds of taxes and vary the tax rates: ... Taxes are most often levied as a percentage, called the tax rate, of a certain value, ... |
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| H&R Block | Taxes, Online Tax Preparation, Tax Software, Filing ... |
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| TaxCut Online | H&R Block | Online Taxes, File Taxes Online ... |
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| Income Taxes, Tax Returns, Refunds, Deductions and E-File Software ... |
| Popular tax preparation software by Intuit. Integrates with Quicken, spreadsheets and offers state by state electronic filing. |
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| Taxes & Estates, Tax and Estate Planning Advice - Forbes.com |
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| Essential Links to Taxes |
| TurboTax Premier For Federal Returns 2005 Win/Mac, TurboTax Total Tax Solution Deluxe 2005 with State Win/Mac, TurboTax Basic 2005 Win/Mac... ... |
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| The latest in tax law updates, news, forms & advice from CNNMoney.com. Includes a refund savings calculator, and interactive tax lessons. |
| money.cnn.com |
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| The Tax Foundation - Educating Taxpayers Since 1937 |
| Devoted to educating taxpayers about tax policy and the total tax burden borne by Americans at all levels of government. |
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| Welcome to the Vermont Department of Taxes |
| Welcome to the Vermont Department of Taxes... ... Changes to Property Tax Adjustments in 2007 - updated 10/18. - Tax Expenditures Transition Report on ... |
| www.state.vt.us |
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| Franchise Tax Board Homepage |
| The department that collects state personal income taxes and bank and corporation taxes for the State of California. Access to forms and tax information. |
| www.ftb.ca.gov |
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| HM Revenue & Customs: Home Page |
| News and information on tax and national insurance, including downloadable leaflets and forms and the latest news on filing tax returns on-line. |
| www.hmrc.gov.uk |
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| State and Local Tax |
| Piper Resources; State Tax Rates and Structure ...Federation of Tax Administrators; State Payroll Taxes Information ...Symmetry Software ... |
| www.taxsites.com |
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| Quicken.com |
| www.quicken.com/taxes/ - 3k - Cached - Similar pages |
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| Tax news and advice from Bankrate.com |
| Information on all phases of tax planning and preparation. |
| www.bankrate.com |
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| Online Tax Advice - Tax Preparation Help - Income Tax Tips |
| Income Tax Tips - MarketWatch offers online tax advice and tips. ... IRS inflation adjustments mean tax break on next year's taxes. ... |
| www.marketwatch.com |
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