The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers across all segments to provide their employees with a written notice of the existence of public health insurance exchanges (also known as the Marketplace) and eligibility for premium tax credits or cost sharing (if applicable for employer’s plan), regardless of whether the exchange is operated by the state or the federal government.

These notices must:

• Inform employees of the existence of state health care marketplaces
• Explain what services will be provided
• Explain how the employee may contact the marketplaces to request assistance
• Detail how employees may be eligible for a premium tax credit or cost-sharing reduction if the employer’s plan does not meet certain requirements
• Explain that the employee may lose employer contributions for health care benefits if he/she enrolls in the marketplace, and that all or some portion of such a contribution may be excludable from income for federal income tax purposes

The Department of Labor has created notice templates for employers who provide health benefits as well as templates for employers that do not. All employers, regardless of their size, must distribute these by October 1. You may wish to speak with your own legal counsel when considering whether to use the model notices provided.

Victoria McCoy of Crown Benefits, who will conduct a workshop for Whalen clients on the health insurance exchanges on September 26, notes that questions within the model notice ask employers to indicate if their plans meet the minimum value standard. If your plan does not meet the minimum value standard, your employees may be able to get the tax credit by buying health insurance on the federal or state exchange.

She points out that a health plan meets the ACA’s minimum value standard if it pays for at least 60 percent of each covered employee’s health care costs.

Employers can make this determination by using the Minimum Value calculator available on the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) website.

The IRS recently issued guidance on the tax credit available to certain small employers that offer health insurance coverage to employees.

Section 45R(a) provides for a health insurance tax credit in the case of an eligible small employer for any taxable year in the credit period. The regulations define an eligible small employer as:

• An employer with no more than 25 full-time employees for the taxable year
• Whose employees have average annual wages of less than $50,000 per FTE (as adjusted for inflation for years after Dec. 31, 2013)
• Having a qualifying arrangement in effect that requires the employer to pay a uniform percentage (not less than 50 percent) of the premium cost of a qualified health plan offered by the employer through a Small Business Health Options Program – or SHOP – Exchange.

The state has renewed the popular Ohio Incumbent Workforce Training Voucher Program that provides funds to reimburse eligible employers for certain training costs for their employees.

A total of $27 million in grants will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications for the grant program will be accepted for review on September 30, beginning at 10 a.m.  A pre-application became available on September 5. If you wish to take advantage of this program, I encourage you to visit the website as soon as possible to review the program’s guidelines for this new round of funding.

Last year in the first year of the program all available funds were accounted for on the first day of the application period so it is crucial that clients who seek funding be ready to apply on September 30.

The program provides training dollars to Ohio’s incumbent workforce through a unique public-private partnership with Ohiomeansjob.com. The program’s goal is to help employers retain and grow their existing Ohio workforce and create a statewide workforce that can meet the present and future demands in an ever-changing economy.

The program is not a tax credit. It is designed to offset a portion of an employer’s costs to upgrade the skills of its incumbent workforce and provides reimbursement to eligible employers for specific training costs accrued during skill-upgrade training. Eligible employers must demonstrate that by receiving funding assistance their business will not only obtain a skilled workforce but will improve their company processes and competitiveness.

The program will reimburse employers for the cost of the training up to $4,000 per employee and/or up to $250,000 per company per fiscal year once the employer has paid the full cost of the training. The employer’s contribution must come from private sources and must not include any previously acquired public funds. The match does not include wages.

As a result of the information about last year’s program in our Insight newsletter, a local company applied for funding and received nearly $40,000 in training reimbursement costs. You may similarly benefit from this program, but you must be ready to apply when the application period begins on September 30.

Let us know if we can be of assistance in helping you with the application process.

SharedWork Ohio, a legislative initiative designed to help employers and workers by preventing layoffs, went into effect in mid-July. The law gives employers the ability to reduce the number of hours worked by employees in lieu of layoffs, and employees can collect federally funded unemployment benefits to help cover the loss of the hours.

Sponsored by Representatives Mike Duffey, R-Worthington, and Gary Scherer, CPA, R-Circleville, the law provides Ohio employers with a new tool to keep their workforce intact during downturns. This new flexibility will help employers avoid costly rehiring and retraining when demand returns. At the same time, employees will be able to keep working and retain their health and retirement benefits.

Half the states and the District of Columbia have enacted shared-work policies. Ohio’s version contains a benefit for employers not available in other states: it provides that employers opting for the shared-work approach can avoid a major increase in their unemployment insurances premium rates.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will administer and promote the program. Employers wishing to participate in the program must submit a plan to the department.  The plan must include, among other things, a description of the manner in which the employer will implement the requirements of the program, as well as a proposed reduction percentage that must be between ten percent and fifty percent.

Employees of participating employers will not be required to meet the ability to work, availability for work and work-search requirements applicable to standard unemployment benefits in order to receive shared-work compensation. The plan cannot be applied to seasonal, temporary or intermittent employees.

The state can draw on $3.7 million in federal funds to cover startup costs, and the federal government will cover nearly all of the costs for unemployment benefits through August 2015.

Since 2007, the Ohio homestead exemption has reduced property taxes for homeowners 65 or older, regardless of their income, and for permanently and totally disabled homeowners. The average savings per homeowner has been estimated to be about $400 per year, although the tax break varies based on local community tax rates.

But the state legislature changed the eligibility requirements through provisions in the budget bill passed at the end of June. In 2014 the Ohio homestead exemption will have an income limit of $30,000.

This means that Ohio seniors who owned and occupied their home as their primary residence as of January 1, 2013, and are 65, or turn 65 by December 31, 2013, should file a homestead exemption application for 2013 or the prior year (2012) with their county auditor.

Auditors in Franklin, Fairfield and Hocking counties have extended the application-filing deadline to December 31. The Licking County Auditor will accept application until mid-December. The auditors in Delaware, Fayette, Knox, Madison, Perry, Pickaway and Union counties are not deviating from the statutory filing deadlines for 2013 – after the first Monday in January and no later than the first Monday in June.

Individuals who were 65 in 2013 and would have qualified for the homestead exemption but did not file can still file a late application next year under the guidelines for tax year 2013 of the former statute. Clients should contact their county auditor to determine any changes in the application deadline for 2013.

The exemption, which takes the form of a credit on property tax bills, allows qualifying homeowners to exempt $25,000 of the market value of their homes from all local property taxes. For example, an eligible owner of a home with a market value of $100,000 will be billed as if the home were valued at $75,000. A homeowner and his/her spouse are entitled to claim a reduction on one property only.

Existing homestead recipients will continue to receive the credit without being subject to the income test and do not have to resubmit an application.