The Affordable Care Act: You May Need to Work with a Rochester Accounting Firm

The Affordable Care Act has been a topic in the news for well over three years. As the law begins its implementation, there are rules and requirements that must be adhered to in order to remain in compliance with the act. While some business owners may wish to try and figure things out on their own, they likely would be making a huge mistake. Granted, the employer mandate has been recently waived buying businesses more time to learn how to comply with the law, there is only so much a novice will be able to figure out. As such, it is absolutely necessary than anyone running a small business speak with a tax professional discuss matters with an qualified Rochester accounting tax specialist who is able to offer the proper guidance and advice. Anything less runs the risk of turning into a major problem for a business owner.

Most are likely aware that the law requires businesses with 50 full-time employees to offer health coverage or pay a penalty. Those who have heard this might not have looked closer at the wording of the law or read any of its related statutes. There is likely a good reason why they would not think to do so. The owner of a business is not involved with accounting and does not follow such matters closely. Be that as it may, the law is the law and there will be requirements which must be followed.

For one, the 50 employees refers to the total amount of employees among all the businesses owned by someone. In other words, if you owned 5 businesses with 10 employees, providing healthcare is required. As skilled Rochester accounting professional will be able to advise you about matters such as these.

Also, the delineation of 50 full-time employees could mean the equivalent of the total of the hours worked by 50 full-time employees. If a host of part-time employees end up equating with the number of full-time hours, requirements to cover benefits or pay fines kicks in. Timelines also exist for a business to comply with the law. Has your business down what is required to stay on top of its timeline? If not, then there could be a number of troubles coming down the road.

Once again, since the law is new and business owners are not versed on how to deal with it, hiring a professional accountant is a much better plan than filing messed up tax returns. If you do that, the risk of an audit increases exponentially. Even if you do not get audited, the tax return will have to be changed. How could it not be? The figures on it were wrong. When a tax return has been adjusted, you will usually find a bill showing up in the mail not too long after you have filed it. Rather than deal with such unexpected and annoying financial woes, it would be much better to have a Rochester accounting tax professional handle your business' ability to implement the program the right way.