Health Care Tax Credits Could Benefit Your School
By Justin Elanjian & Thomas Prevatt,
HA&W CPAs and Business Advisors
Your school may be eligible for tax credits that will be a blessing to tightening budgets. There isn't a downside or risk to applying for this credit. The biggest problem is that too few schools know about it and go through the process to claim it.
As a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (ACA), Congress is offering a tax credit designed to encourage small employers to provide health care coverage to their employees. The good news is that this tax credit can also be claimed by tax-exempt schools that meet certain criteria. The maximum credit increased for 2014, so some have found that they qualify for a substantially larger credit than in prior years.
Does Your School Qualify?
Here are a few details about the ACA credit:
• Your school can claim the tax credit whether it has paid-in taxes or not.
• Additionally, your school only has to have paid premiums for employees and meet a few other conditions to qualify.
• The credit can be worth up to 35% of your organization's health care premium costs through tax year 2016.
A quick and simple example of how this could benefit your school is as follows: Assume you paid $20,000 a year for employee health care premiums. If you qualify for the maximum credit of 35 percent, you can request a credit of $7,000 for a maximum of two consecutive taxable years, beginning with 2014.
Calculating the credit can be complex and may not be cost-effective to do on your own. HA&W offers a free analysis to help you determine your eligibility. To request this free consultation, visit schoolgrowth.com/haw.
