The 30 percent reduction of the state tax credit, effective Friday, actually applies to all 800 companies currently getting the tax credit. Two-thirds of those businesses can offset the lower state credit by taking a similar federal income tax credit that took effect last year.
Yet the one-third of businesses not eligible for the federal credit will see only the 30 percent cut in the state credit, which currently averages $5,500 per business a year. The credit is part of Insure Montana, the state-run program that helps small businesses subsidize health insurance for their employees.
State Auditor Monica Lindeen, whose office administers Insure Montana, will send notices this week to businesses on the tax-credit program, notifying them of the change in their state credit.
The change is the product of a complex set of circumstances, set in motion by the 2011 Legislature and Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
The Republican-controlled 2011 Legislature decided that Montana businesses eligible for the new federal tax credit, which helps businesses offset their cost of employee health insurance, should not also collect the state tax credit for the same thing.
So the Legislature passed House Bill 612, which eliminated the state tax credit for those businesses eligible for the federal credit. Legislators also cut $6 million in funding out of Insure Montana's budget that would have paid for those businesses' state credits.
Schweitzer, a Democrat, vetoed HB612 in early May, saying it "needlessly eliminated state tax credits to small businesses."
Schweitzer's state revenue director, Dan Bucks, said late last week that the governor realized his veto might lower the state credit for some, but that he wanted to preserve the credit for more businesses.
"(The governor) believes the eligibility should be broader rather than narrower," Bucks said. "He would rather have more businesses eligible than fewer."
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While Schweitzer's veto maintained the state tax credit, the $6 million budget reduction, contained in a separate bill that wasn't vetoed, remained intact.
Jill Sark, program director for Insure Montana, said last week that her office had to decide how to deal with the problem, and chose to keep all businesses in the program but to reduce their credit by 30 percent, to cover the two-year, $6 million loss in funding.
The cut took effect Friday, for half of the current tax year and then into the 2012 tax year.
"This is a better solution than removing two-thirds of the businesses from the Insure Montana tax credit entirely," she said. "We thought it would have had much more impact program-wide to remove businesses from the state program."
The state tax credit is for businesses with from two to nine employees that offer health insurance to their employees and pay for at least half the cost of the coverage. The credit is up to $1,200 a year per covered employee, $1,200 for a covered spouse of an employee, and $480 for a covered dependent of an employee.
The federal tax credit is for businesses that employ fewer than 25 full-time employees and can be as high as 35 percent of the businesses' cost of providing the insurance.
Business lobbyists said they weren't aware of the upcoming change in the state tax credit program.
Jon Bennion, director of government relations for the Montana Chamber of Commerce, said the change will create some confusion in the business community, and that it's unfortunate some businesses will end up with higher net insurance costs.
"As we're hearing from a lot of small businesses, it's already tough to keep health insurance benefits at their current levels or at all," he said. "There also is still a lot of confusion over how the federal (health reform) legislation is going to affect availability and cost of health coverage." ( Source http://missoulian.com ) For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today
This is good for them that their tax has been cut.
ReplyDeleteHealth Insurance UK