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Everything You Need to Know About the American Rescue Plan Act & the COBRA Premium Subsidy

On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, or ARPA. ARPA provides $1.9 trillion in federal stimulus which includes a handful of items directly affecting employers and their employees. Among other provisions, ARPA created a 100% COBRA Premium Subsidy and additional COBRA enrollment rights for certain employees (and their families) who lost group health plan coverage due to an involuntary termination of employment or a reduction of hours. Today, we’ll break down how ARPA will affect employers specifically when it comes to the COBRA Premium Subsidy.

Who qualifies for the COBRA Premium Subsidy?

From April 1, 2021 through September 30, 2021, group health plans providing COBRA continuation coverage must offer a 100% subsidy of COBRA premiums for Assistance Eligible Individuals (AEI) and their qualified beneficiaries. An individual is an AEI if they qualify for COBRA coverage due to an involuntary termination of employment or reduction of hours due to COVID-19. The subsidy requirement applies to major medical, dental, and vision plans offered by employers, but does not apply to Health Flexible Spending Accounts (HFSA). It’s important to note that individuals who qualify for COBRA coverage due to other qualifying events, such as a voluntary termination of employment, are not considered to be AEIs eligible for the premium subsidy.

In addition, the following individuals also qualify for the COBRA Premium Subsidy:

Individuals who do not have a COBRA election in effect on April 1, 2021, but who would be AEIs if they did, are also eligible for the subsidy. This means that individuals who experienced an involuntary termination of employment or a reduction of hours so that COBRA would have started sometime within the 18 months prior to April 1, 2021, but who did not timely elect COBRA, may still elect subsidized COBRA coverage.
Individuals who had elected COBRA coverage but discontinued such coverage before April 1, 2021 are eligible to re-elect COBRA coverage if they would otherwise be AEIs and are still within their COBRA 18-month maximum coverage period.

Will AEIs be responsible for COBRA taxes?

The amount of the COBRA premium subsidy is not taxable to the AEI. The premium amount is advanced by the employer or plan and will be reimbursed by the federal government through a refundable credit against payroll taxes.

What tax benefit will employers receive?

For self-insured plans and insured plans subject to federal COBRA, the employer will receive the tax credit. For insured plans not subject to COBRA, the insurer will receive the credit. Credit amounts exceeding Medicare taxes will be treated as a refund of a Medicare tax overpayment. Employers, insurers, and administrators will need to implement the ARPA COBRA provisions on very short notice, since subsidies became available beginning April 1, 2021.

The Department of Labor is expected to issue further guidance, but employers should consult with their insurers, third-party administrators, and advisors now to ensure compliance.

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We know this is a lot of information. Feel free to reach out to us we will help answer any questions. Email us at marketing@corpstrat.com or call us at 818-377-7260.

Top 5 Benefits of Buy/Sell Agreements

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An often overlooked but important aspect of Executive Planning is the Buy/Sell Agreement. No one wants to think about the death of one of their business partners, it’s painful on both a personal and financial level. But it’s important to plan for the worst so that if that day comes, both their family members and your business remain protected and secure.

What is a Buy/Sell Agreement?

A Buy/Sell Agreement is basically a business prenup: it’s a legally binding contract that stipulates how a partner’s share of a business may be reassigned if that partner dies, divorces, or faces bankruptcy. Often the agreement stipulates that, in the event of a business partner’s death, their shares be sold to the remaining partners or to the partnership. As part of the agreement, business partners can buy life insurance policies on each of the owners. This way, if one of the owners dies, the remaining owners can use the payout from the life insurance policy to buy the deceased owner’s share of the business and make sure the deceased’s families are taken care of.

Top 5 Benefits of Setting up a Buy/Sell Agreement:

1. Peace of Mind

A Buy/Sell Agreement is great because it’s a simple way to secure the future of your business. It protects all partners in a business, whether they decide to leave the business or can no longer partake in the business.

2. An Easier Transition

In addition to offering business owners and partners peace of mind, a Buy/Sell Agreement also assures continuity for customers, creditors, and employees. Loosing a partner can be difficult enough, the last thing you want is to lose customers or assets in the transition process.

3. Promotes Equitable and Orderly Transfer of Wealth and Ownership

Having an effective Buy/Sell Agreement will help your company avoid messy inheritance issues or having an unexpected family member become a partner. It also guarantees the family a buyer for the assets which really help ensure the family is taken care in paying estate debts, expenses, and taxes.

4. Inexpensive Way to Protect your Company

Setting up a Buy-Sell Agreement is affordable and simple. Even if everything goes great and there are no unexpected deaths, you’re not losing money by setting one up and it can even offer tax advantages. However, if the worst does happens, having one can save everyone involved a great deal of time, money, and emotional heartache. To us, it’s a no-brainer to set one up.

5. Easy to Do When All Partners Are Healthy

Since a Buy/Sell Agreement involves taking out life insurance plans, the younger and healthier every partner is, the easier it will be to get an affordable life insurance policy. If you try to procure a plan after one of your partners is diagnosed with a terminal illness, you may not be able to get a plan at all.

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Need help setting up a Buy/Sell Agreement? We can help you with that. Contact us at marketing@corpstrat.com today!

8 Reasons Seamless Onboarding Is So Important

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Believe it or not, not so long ago companies had to store their paperwork in massive filing units that took up valuable office space. When an employee needed a document, HR teams had to go fishing for it in an interminable sea of paper. If something went missing, it could lead to major compliance issues and leave employers vulnerable to law suits.

Thanks to new technology allowing for powerful mobile apps, those days are mostly behind us. However, many companies still aren’t using the most efficient onboarding systems. Some have a general onboarding system but it’s not connected to payroll. Others have paperless onboarding but it has a clunky UI and information isn’t stored in a single database, leaving room for error and documents falling through the cracks. With our Workforce Ready, all-in-one solution: onboarding is connected directly to Payroll, employees can use a single login to keep things streamlined, and everything is stored securely in a single database.

Here are 8 ways our Workforce Ready platform can make onboarding completely painless:

1. It’ll save you a tremendous amount of time.

Our platform features a powerful desktop and mobile application that allows HR teams to easily and immediately generate documents and send them to employees. This mean no more running to and from the printer or using a third party app that you then have to upload into the system.

2. It’ll save you valuable office space.

Employers don’t have to store a thing. This means no more dedicating entire rooms in your office for storing paperwork or hard drives. It also reduces the anxiety of forms getting lost or misfiled, which can quickly snowball into a bigger compliance issue.

3. It’ll make connecting new employees to payroll a breeze.

A big inconvenience for HR teams we see is when their onboarding platform and employee HR portals aren’t connected with their payroll. We think it’s extremely important for onboarding and payroll to be connected through a single datapoint entry because it eliminates the possibility of mistakes and delays. Our Workforce Ready platform stores everything in one database making it easy for HR teams and guarantees no confusion or delayed payments for employees.

4. It’ll make it easy for employees to access their documents.

With the Workforce Ready app, employees can access their onboarding documents any time and any where through their portal. This empowers your employees and offloads work from your HR team’s plate.

5. It’ll keep your managers accessible and accountable.

Many employees who leave a job do so because they have issues with their direct manager. By using an efficient employee onboarding and tracking system, employers can ensure their managers are efficiently leading and motivating their team members by using the app to bake in evaluations and performance benchmarks at designated times.

6. It’ll offer your team a more personalized experience.

Surveys have shown that going paperless can actually reduce turnover rates. Companies that have effective onboarding procedures save money by retaining up to 50% more new hires. When your team members feel empowered and in the know, they’re more likely to be satisfied with their work environment.

7. It’ll make sure they can get to work faster.

The sooner your new hires can get to work, the sooner they can start contributing to and getting to know the team. Employers that haven’t adopted paperless onboarding might be wasting their new employees’ valuable time by having them mired in paperwork before they even know where the coffee maker is. Having a powerful web and mobile application like Workforce Ready means HR can send documents and checklists, employees can immediately sign what they need to, and those signatures are stored in a single cloud-based database.

8. It’ll help with efficiency and compliance

It’s simple: electronic onboarding ensures compliance, which protects your business. The onboarding app basically force employees to complete each step before they can move on. This means that if your company gets audited, it’ll be easy and straightforward to present all the relevant paperwork and show your company is compliant.

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Need help setting up seamless onboarding? Let’s talk! Email us at marketing@corpstrat.com.

8 Ways Not Having Workforce Automation Can Get You Into Trouble

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When it comes to your people management systems, are you in iPhone or a flip phone?

If you haven’t gone paperless, your company is stuck in the past. It’s time to avoid major headaches, increase employee satisfaction, track time & attendance in a single database, and make onboarding a breeze with Workforce Automation. You may be thinking, “isn’t going paperless a hassle?” We’d say by not going paperless, you’re leaving your company at risk for potential law suits, compliance issues, and major fines. If you ask us, that sounds like a MUCH bigger hassle.

Setting up Workforce Automation will ensure that:

1. Onboarding doesn’t have to be a time suck.

Onboarding no longer has to be a tedious process that spans a few days. Switching to a cloud-based database with a powerful web and mobile application makes onboarding a breeze for both new hires and for the HR department. With workforce automation, the new employees know exactly what forms they need to sign, the signatures are stored in a secure database, and documents never go missing. Also HR teams can rest easy that employees can’t claim they didn’t sign a document or weren’t made aware, everything is easily accessible and laid out in easy to understand checklists.

2. Time and attendance is ALWAYS accurate.

Tracking accurate time and attendance is more critical than ever. Take punching-in and punching-out into the 21st century with a powerful mobile app that allows your employees to clock in and out once they’re within a certain distance of the office or work site. California has especially stringent labor laws so as an employer, going paperless with time and attendance means you can pull a report on your workforce attendance in just a few minutes.

3. No one’s missing out on PTO days.

Nothing benefits a company more than having a motivated team. Part of maintaining employee engagement is to make sure they’re taking their PTO days and getting the rest they need to reset. Give employees visibility into their accrued hours via a self-service portal they can access from anywhere. Having transparent PTO accrual and usage hours ensures that PTO is properly paid out and reduced against balances.

4. Benefit enrollment is easy and your team has exactly the plan they need.

Benefits don’t have to be a headache for HR and confusing for employees. With an automated application, you’re able to offer your employees clear guidance on their benefit options. Once they choose their option, enrolling is simple and straightforward. Sometimes employees drag their feet on signing up for benefits, by going paperless, HR teams will know exactly who has yet to sign up, and can easily send a gentle reminder. Finally, going paperless protects the company by maintaining a reliable record, employees can’t come back and say they weren’t made aware or were never offered benefits.

5. Important forms and documents don’t go missing.

In the past, it was common for companies to have entire storage rooms dedicated to keeping paperwork. Nowadays, HR teams may keep a combination of hard copies and hard drives with computer files. This often leads to important documents getting lost, deleted, or simply overlooked. When important documents go missing, it can mean costly consequences if you’re faced with a law suit. Going paperless allows you to keep all mandatory files on current and past employees, all on line and easily accessible for employees and HR. No more taking up unnecessary office space and no more worrying about compliance.

6. Communicating important changes (like COVID-19 policy updates) is simple and no one misses the memo.

Failing to have an expedient way to communicate rapidly changing policies, like ones pertaining to COVID-19, can cause compliance issues. Not only does it keep you compliant, it also makes things like updating your Employee Handbook as easy as can be. No more wasting paper by printing out memos or Employee Handbook updates, simple make edits and hit “update” and you and your team are good to go.

7. Even when your entire team is remote, you can continue to build company culture.

Don’t forget: people need people! It’s been a tough year for company culture as so many teams have gone remote. Adopting workforce automation can actually help you continue building culture while remote. You can share culture building, like employee of the month or promotions, and company mission related information to your team with the push of a button.

8. Employees can access all the information they need on their smart phone.

Employees have come to expect that their information is readily accessible via smart phone and web and not dependent upon one person or email requests, why should their work place be any different? Increase employee satisfaction by up to 183% when you go paperless and allow employees access to edit or check their documents, benefits, and records—any time, any where.

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Thinking of going paperless and bringing your team into the 21st century? Schedule a call with us. We’ll be there every step of the way and make it a seamless transition, using a combination of our cutting edge technology and unbeatable service.

5 Employee Benefits Tax Strategies You Need to Know

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Have you explored ways to re-engineer your Employee Benefits to maximize your dollar? If you’re spending after tax dollars to pay for medical expenses, you may not be maximizing your savings. Health benefit plans allow employers and employees to set aside funds, pretax, to help employees pay for qualified medical expenses. By combining a number of different tax strategies, we can help you find major savings for both your company and your employees.

1. Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

FSAs are more important than ever. They can reduce the amount of taxes an employee needs to pay and also help save the company money by reducing payroll taxes. A Flex Plan is a consumer-driven account that allows employees to use pre-tax money for eligible healthcare and dependent care expenses. Typically the funds in a flex plan are available during a 12-month enrollment period, however due to COVID-19 and its effects, this enrollment window has been extended, allowing employees additional time to use their FSA account balances. If you want to learn more about how COVID-19 has affected your FSA, reach out to us today.

2. Health Savings Account (HSA)

Similar to FSAs, HSAs sets aside funds into an account, pre-tax. However HSAs offer employees more flexibility and control—they can use, save, or invest the money in their account. Any unused money rolls over instead of disappearing and, because it belongs to employees not the employer, the HSA is portable and moves with the employee to their next job.

3. Medical Reimbursement

Did you know you can pay all out-of-pocket medical expenses using company deductible dollars? You may be able to claim a deduction if your total healthcare costs for the year are high enough. You can deduct your health insurance premiums—and other healthcare costs—if your expenses exceed 10% of your adjusted gross income. Owners may also qualify to write off their professional and business, out-of-pocket expenses using a discriminatory medical expense reimbursement plan. (Ask us how!)

4. Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)

HRA plans are employer-funded medical reimbursement plans. The employer sets aside a specific amount of pre-tax dollars for employees to pay for health care expenses on an annual basis. Depending on how the plan is designed, HRAs can generate significant savings in overall health benefits.

5. Self-Insured Dental Expense Plan

A self-insured dental expense plan can “beat the heck” out of a fully-insured dental plan and here’s why: The fully insured plan offers employers peace of mind but they cost more and the rates increase every year. Self-funded plans on the other hand offer employers more control, increased transparency, and significant annual savings. Most plans have a firm cap on this liability per covered life and, assuming they don’t discriminate, can create an efficient employee benefit.

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These are just our top 5 hacks, but we have so many more strategies in our tool kit. To learn more about these tax strategies, schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation with an Employee Benefits experts or email us at marketing@www.corpstrat.com. We’ll see how we can rethink your benefits and save your company money.