Wednesday, March 20, 2013

ObamaTax Updates

■ From email:

"On March 8, 2013, [HHS Secretary Shecantbeserious] ... issued a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) announcing that compliance with most [ObamaTax] provisions is being delayed for expatriate plans ... Expatriate coverage will qualify as minimum essential coverage for purposes of the individual mandate"

Expat health plans is a subject we've rarely (ever?) addressed here at IB. These plans cover American citizens who live abroad for 6 or more months (as well as any covered dependents).


And speaking of "covered dependents," we recently noted that The ObamaTax discourages group plans from covering spouses. Now, an industry group warns about the implications of that:

"A rule requiring employers to offer dependent coverage thus not only imposes an unnecessary administrative and cost burden on employers, it can actually harm the low-income employees whom the shared responsibility provisions were designed to help"


There's often a waiting period for new hires looking to get on their employer's health insurance plan. That can be up to several months of non-coverage (a great place, by the way, for a Short Term Medical plan). Now, the Fed's are looking to keep employers from exploiting that necessary wait-time to avoid certain ObamaTax challenges:

"[A] coverage access section that's separate from the play-or-play provision will require employers that do offer major medical coverage to limit any waiting periods that occur before coverage begins to 90 or fewer days"

So many rules, so many loopholes...
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