Are Payroll Deductions for Well being Insurance coverage Pre-Tax?

Offering medical health insurance advantages to your workers can depart you with quite a lot of questions. When you have your workers contribute to their premiums, it’s a must to know methods to deduct the price from their gross pay. However, are payroll deductions for medical health insurance pre-tax? Learn on to study the reply to this query and extra.

Are payroll deductions for medical health insurance pre-tax?

The reply to Is medical health insurance pre-tax or post-tax? is: it is dependent upon the kind of medical health insurance plan you could have. Typically, medical health insurance plans that an employer deducts from an worker’s gross pay are pre-tax plans. However, that’s not at all times the case. 

Whereas searching for well being advantages plans in your workers, chances are you’ll think about both pre-tax or post-tax medical health insurance choices. Pre-tax medical health insurance plans embody:

Plans like well being reimbursement preparations (HRAs) provide comparable pre-tax advantages (and we’ll get to that later). 

Part 125 cafeteria plans

One of the vital frequent varieties of medical insurance coverage for employers is a Part 125 cafeteria plan. In accordance with the IRS, Part 125 plans are written plans maintained by employers the place all contributors are workers, and contributors can select between two or extra advantages. The advantages consist of money and certified advantages, they usually’re not includible in gross earnings. Usually, you can not embody advantages that defer an worker’s pay within the cafeteria plan. 

Part 125 plans embody qualifying advantages reminiscent of:

• Adoption help
• Dependent care help
• Accident and well being advantages (not together with Archer medical financial savings accounts)
• Group-term life insurance coverage protection
• Well being financial savings accounts (HSAs)

Well being financial savings accounts

What’s an HSA? An HSA is a sort of financial savings account particularly designed to assist pay for or reimburse for sure medical bills. Workers and self-employed people can solely have an HSA if they’ve a excessive deductible well being plan (HDHP). 

HDHPs are well being plans with excessive annual deductibles and low month-to-month premiums. You might have an HDHP Part 125 plan that pairs with a well being financial savings account. 

Well being financial savings accounts are tax-free funds that the worker owns. Employers can contribute to the HSAs of their workers, however the worker has complete possession. Should you contribute to an worker’s HSA and the worker doesn’t, the worker nonetheless owns the funds. And, an worker can depart your organization and take their HSA funds with them. 

For 2024, people can contribute as much as $4,150 every year for self-only protection and $8,300 per yr for household protection. Workers can roll over funds to the next yr, and the rollover funds don’t rely towards that yr’s most contribution. Deduct the worker contributions earlier than withholding taxes. 

Versatile financial savings accounts

Whereas much like an HSA relating to taxability, a versatile spending account differs in a couple of vital methods:

• Solely workers can open FSAs. Self-employed people can not have a versatile financial savings account
• Workers can open an FSA no matter the kind of medical health insurance plan they’ve
• The employer owns the FSA account, not the worker. If an worker leaves, they forfeit their remaining FSA funds to the employer
• Workers obtain their full funds firstly of the yr. In the event that they depart mid-year and spend greater than they’ve contributed, they need to pay the employer the distinction

The utmost contribution for 2024 is $3,200. Employers can permit workers to roll over as much as $640 in unused funds to the following yr.

How one can calculate pre-tax medical health insurance

Employer-sponsored plans are usually pre-tax deductions for workers. Normally, deduct the employee-paid portion of the insurance coverage premiums earlier than withholding any taxes. Nevertheless, pre-tax medical health insurance premiums might not come out earlier than you withhold or contribute sure taxes. In some states, a pre-tax well being premium shouldn’t be pre-tax for sure taxes, reminiscent of state unemployment tax (e.g., Pennsylvania). 

Let’s say you buy a Part 125 cafeteria plan in your workers. The premiums are $600, and also you pay 50% of the premiums. So, you deduct $300 out of your workers’ paychecks and contribute $300 to the premiums. 

You may have an worker who earns $2,000 biweekly. Here’s what the 7.65% FICA tax appears to be like like with gross pay of $2,000 and no deductions:

$2,000 X 7.65% = $153

However, a Part 125 plan is pre-tax. So earlier than withholding any taxes, deduct $300 for the pre-tax medical health insurance. 

$2,000 – $300 = $1,700

After deducting the medical health insurance premiums, the worker’s pay is $1,700. Withhold the taxes for the worker primarily based on $1,700 as a substitute of $2,000. Check out the FICA tax now:

$1,7000 X 7.65% = $130.05 

The employer portion of the FICA tax is decrease, too, with pre-tax deductions. So, a pre-tax plan also can prevent tax {dollars} by reducing your tax legal responsibility. 

Pre-tax vs. post-tax medical health insurance

Once more, most employer-sponsored medical health insurance is paid for utilizing pre-tax gross earnings. Nevertheless, workers can nonetheless have post-tax premium funds. Workers who buy protection by means of an insurance coverage firm and don’t elect to enroll in employer-sponsored plans have post-tax premiums. 

The excellence between pre-tax or after-tax medical health insurance issues. Why? As a result of it determines how a lot your workers pay in taxes and their eligibility for different employer-sponsored advantages, reminiscent of HRAs. 

Well being reimbursement preparations

Once more, a well being reimbursement association permits workers to have pre-tax advantages whilst they pay for his or her premiums with post-tax {dollars}. How? An employer can reimburse workers for medical prices, together with funds on premiums, utilizing nontaxable funds. 

With HRAs, workers can select the well being plan they need or want. Check out three HRA choices accessible to employers.

Certified Small Employer Well being Reimbursement Association

A Certified Small Employer Well being Reimbursement Association (QSEHRA) is on the market for small employers who are usually not required to buy firm medical health insurance underneath the Reasonably priced Care Act (ACA). A small employer underneath the ACA is one with fewer than 50 full-time equal (FTE) workers. 

With a QSEHRA, employers can reimburse as much as $6,150 for single workers or $12,450 for household protection in 2024. Solely small employers can arrange and reap the benefits of a QSEHRA standalone plan. You may reimburse workers for individually-obtained premiums and any qualifying medical bills (e.g., remedy).

Particular person Protection Well being Reimbursement Association

Particular person Protection Well being Reimbursement Preparations (ICHRAs) are plans that permit employers to reimburse workers with out contribution limits. Any employer can arrange an ICHRA, however all relevant massive employers (ALEs) as outlined by the ACA should make sure the plan is inexpensive. ALEs are employers with 50 or extra FTEs. 

What does the ACA think about to be an inexpensive plan? The month-to-month premium for the lowest-cost Silver Well being Plan for self protection within the worker’s space (minus the month-to-month ICHRA reimbursement quantity) should be lower than 9.83% of one-twelfth of the worker’s family earnings. 

Like a QSEHRA, an ICHRA is a standalone plan, so you can not provide an ICHRA and an employer-sponsored conventional medical health insurance plan. 

Excepted Profit Well being Reimbursement Association

The third kind of HRA is the Excepted Profit Well being Reimbursement Association (EBHRA). The employer contribution to an EBHRA for 2024 is $2,100. Any employer, no matter dimension, can create an EBHRA. 

Not like QSEHRAs and ICHRAs, you have to even have a standard medical health insurance plan in place. You can not provide an EBHRA as a substitute of conventional medical health insurance. 

Reimbursements underneath EBHRAs cowl any premiums not included in your conventional group plan (e.g., dental insurance coverage), copays, and deductibles. You can not use an EBHRA to reimburse your workers for premiums for the corporate medical health insurance plan. 

Want a easy resolution to deducting pre-tax insurance coverage premiums out of your worker’s paychecks? Patriot’s on-line payroll software program routinely calculates each deduction and contribution you enter for correct withholdings each time. Begin your free trial right now. 

This text has been up to date from its authentic publication date of June 21, 2021.

This isn’t meant as authorized recommendation; for extra data, please click on right here.