Obamacare tax relief on its way for some employers

By Christian Schappel

The Affordable Care Act imposes an excise tax — with the potential to reach $36,500 per affected employee per year — on employers that fail to abide by the law’s rules. 

The tax can levied for things like failing to abide by the law’s maximum waiting period rules (full-time employees can’t be forced to wait longer than 90 days to be health plan-eligible), having out-of-pocket limits that exceed the law’s thresholds and failing to cover certain contraceptives.

But it can also be levied upon employers for providing cash — pre-tax or post-tax — to help employees purchase health insurance in the individual market. Arrangements like this — also known as “employer payment plans” — trigger this $100 per day, per affected individual excise tax.

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