Health Insurance Provided by Employer - 2011

[duanecpa]

It is my understanding that effective 1/1/2011, the health care bill redefined income to include the cost of providing health insurance to an individual employee. For example, if an employee earns $30,000 per year and the employer provides health insurance that costs the employer $5,800 that in 2011 the $5,800 is added to the $30,000 for income tax purposes. Is my understanding correct?

If the above is correct, are there exemptions from the above for members of unions?

Would like to have citations.

Thank you.

[solomon]

Incorrect.

[JohnH]

Jump to this thread to see an in-depth discussion on the misinformation being spread around about this subject and a couple of related issues, along with excellent discussions on the matter of self-deception, trumpets, and fishing lies:

http://www.thetaxbook.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15467&highlight=snopes

[Bees Knees]

I just had a stranger in our building stop and ask me about this.

This is getting out of hand. Everyone needs to educate themselves about the new health care reform stuff. As tax professionals, we are going to be asked about this over and over again.

[JohnH]

Maybe we can produce a sign to hang in our office that says:

1) Bill Gates isn't going to send you $1 every time you forward an email claiming to be from him;

2) There never was a Craig Sherboug in England trying to accumulate 1 million birthday cards, Christmas cards, or anything else in an attempt to get into the Guiness book;

3) There really isn't a widow of a deposed leader from Nigeria/Angola/Sierra Leone trying to smuggle $30 million out of the country through your bank account;

4) There's no longer an Irish Hospital Sweepstakes, so you can't possibly have won it;

5) Your medical benefits are not going to be added to your taxable income on your W-2 form in the forseeable future.

[Peachie]

I tried telling a client

this past week that her Human Resources department is giving her incorrect info. After telling me how much schooling they get and must be correct, I told her she said the same thing last year when I corrected her about something coming out of her HR department. I suggested that she get educated for herself so she wouldn't have to rely on me or HR. Why is it that bad info spreads like wild fire and we have to try to clean up the mess?

[Bees Knees]

Why is it that bad info spreads like wild fire and we have to try to clean up the mess?

The source is from an email that circulated a few months back shortly after the health care bill was signed into law. The email was anti-Obama anti-government getting into the health care business propaganda. People bent on arguing why the health care bill is a bad idea resorted to unsubstantiated rumors with no basis in fact.

Unfortunately, it is human nature to latch on to something that is critical of what we dislike. It is similar to passing on gossip, which is often based on exaggeration and out of context information.

In my opinion, if you are going to debate something, you make a better argument using facts rather than fiction. The aftermath of this is the false information in the email eventually made it into the main stream. Those who haven’t looked into it can be made to look like a fool when they pass it along without first checking into the facts.

[FEDUKE404]

Dire waring is false

This "warning" has to be in the top ten junk emails of all time.

I've had at least a dozen clients forward me the "important information."

Here is my own most recent contribution against the chaos:

There have been many emails of hysteria related to the requirement that health care benefits will be reported to the government via Form W2 beginning in 2011. At this time such mere reporting will NOT, I repeat N-O-T, result in any tax increase. ("This will start for W-2s in the 2011 tax year. While not a tax increase in itself, it makes it very easy for Congress to tax employer-provided healthcare benefits later.")

And a useful Snopes link also:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/hr3590.asp

FE