The new health reform law gives a tax credit to certain small employers that provide health care coverage to their employees, effective with tax years beginning in 2010. Over the next several weeks, Vision Payroll will be providing further information on the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit. Today’s topic is the Impact of Owners and Relatives.

Most owners and their relatives and not counted for either the calculation of full-time equivalent employees or average annual wages. The following are excluded from both calculations:

• Sole-proprietors
• Partners
• 2% S corporation shareholders
• 5% owners within the meaning of §416
• Family members or dependents of any one of these first four groups of individuals

For this purpose, a family member is defined as a child (or descendant of a child); a sibling or step-sibling; a parent (or ancestor of a parent); a step-parent; a niece or nephew; an aunt or uncle; or a son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law or sister-in-law.

The next topic to be covered in this series is Employers in a Controlled Group or an Affiliated Service Group. Contact Vision Payroll if you have further questions on the Impact of Owners and Relatives.