How Will The New Affordable Care Act Rules Affect Your Business? Quick Recap on Key Requirements of the New Law

    SANTA BARBARA, CA, July 29, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Santa Barbara Financial Payroll (SBF Payroll) the provider of fast, accurate payroll services, helps employers manage the new health insurance regulations taking effect on January 1, 2016, per the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 for employers with 50-99 full time equivalent employees. Employers with 100 or more employees implemented these rules as of January 1st, 2015. SBF Payroll with more than a dozen branches throughout the United States, (sbfpayroll.com) has been taking a direct approach to assist their clients with these changes, and is providing a Q&A call-in starting August 1st, to help employers comply with the new regulations.

"We will provide key requirements of the new law, and recommend our clients and their insurance agents calculate the specific contributions each business needs to make toward employee health insurance," said SBF Founder and CEO Kim Pothe. "Then, we help guide employers through this process, act as a resource, and answer questions. We strive to keep our clients fully informed as the penalties can be quite high for non-compliance."

The main requirement in the law is paying a portion of the insurance cost for your employees if you do not offer an existing insurance plan that meets the minimum standards. The key task for employers is correctly calculating the number of "full time equivalent" employees to determine whether they are subject to these requirements.

Under the new law, according to the ACA, an employee is considered full time if they work 30 or more hours per week. If there are two part-time employees each working 15 hours per week, together they are considered one full time equivalent (FTE) employee. In order to calculate whether your business meets the 50 FTE employee test, you must add up all of the employees working at least 30 hours per week. This number will become your base full time employee count. "Let's say you count 40. It would seem you are not subject to the new rules, but this is not accurate. Next, you must add up the total average hours your part-time employees work in a week," said Pothe. "Let's say the number of hours is 426 for your 30 part-time employees. Divide this number by 30 for 14.2. This means you would add 14 to your base number of 40 for a total FTE employee count of 54. You WOULD be subject to the new regulations even though you have only 40 full time employees because you have 54 FTE employees." The implementation of these rules for employers with 50-99 was delayed from January 1st, 2015 to January 1st, 2016.

"Even with the new benefits created by the Affordable Care Act, it is important to note that small businesses under 50 employees are not required to offer health insurance to their employees. I understand though that many do in order to ensure the health and well being of their workforce, and retain top talent," said Delaware Senator Tom Carper.

Employers are required to provide employees with a standard "Summary of Benefits and Coverage" form explaining what their plan covers and what it costs. The purpose of the SBC form is to help employees better understand and evaluate their health insurance options. If there is non-compliance, penalties may be imposed. For more information, visit https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/09/09/2013-21791/information-reporting-by-applicable-large-employers-on-health-insurance-coverage-offered-under.

Learn more details about the Affordable Care Act of 2010 here:
https://www.sba.gov/content/employers-50-or-more-employees

For more information on how the Affordable Care Act affects you, please visit the Small Business Administration, which has information specifically for small businesses, including weekly webinars, at http://www.sba.gov/healthcare/.

Obamacare Advice for Employees with Options, if Unaffordable, and Employer Mandate Fee:
http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-employer-mandate/

Senator John Carper, Health Care Issues & Legislation 2015. Retrieved from [website]: http://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/healthcare

For additional information you are invited to visit: www.sbfpayroll.com

CONTACT:
SBF Payroll, Inc.
(805) 965-7325
[email protected]
www.sbfpayroll.com

ABOUT SBF Payroll:

SBF Payroll is a leader in the payroll industry celebrating its 15th year anniversary processing payroll for thousands of companies all over the United States. The corporate headquarters are located in downtown Santa Barbara and we can place you with one of our national offices. Business owners are busy and may not realize the sheer number of rules and regulations they may have to worry about such as tax filing requirements, electronic tax payments and new hire reporting regulations. The payroll professionals at SBF will handle these accounting tasks for you.

Payroll is our expertise, therefore, we are always abreast of changes in tax laws, filing requirements, reporting, deadlines and all details revolving around the payroll process. Join the thousands of business owners who have switched to SBF and saved up to 60%. Outsource what you can and focus on the results. Our customers include CPA's, bookkeepers, restaurants, law offices, financial and banking firms, doctors, retailers, and more. Rest at ease knowing your payroll processor is familiar with all the specific details that make your payroll unique. Simply provide us with your payroll information each pay period via phone, fax, or e-mail and we take care of the rest. We can even e-mail your payroll reports directly to your accountant each pay period or at the end of each quarter. Switching to SBF for your payroll processing is simple. We will send you a short list of items we need, and simply e-mail or fax the requested items to us and you are on your way.

With our broad expansion and coverage in the United States and the need for experts to help employers implement the new laws, we are training quality professionals to handle our dedicated and growing client base. Please see our Franchise Opportunities page to find out more about how you can purchase and operate your own SBF Payroll franchise. Contact us at [email protected] or call (805) 248-7002.

Santa Barbara Financial Payroll - Corporate Headquarters
3 West Carrillo Street, Suite 202 - Santa Barbara, CA 93101 - (805) 965-7325
www.sbfpayroll.com

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