Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce

News from Paul E. Kanjorski, Member of Congress

As you may know, on March 21, 2010, the House of Representatives considered the Affordable Care Act to improve the affordability of heath care. After careful consideration, I decided to vote in favor of this legislation. The House of Representatives passed this legislation by a vote of 219 to 212 and the President signed it into law on March 23, 2010.

One of the many provisions of this legislation established tax credits for small businesses to help defray the cost of providing health insurance to their employees, effective tax year 2010. The credit is available to businesses with fewer than 25 employees and is worth up to 35 percent of the premium costs paid by a small business in 2010. To qualify for the tax credit, businesses must have fewer than 25 "full-time equivalent" employees and average annual wages of $50,000 or less. The full tax credit is available to businesses with 10 or fewer "full-time equivalent" employees is determined by dividing the total number of hours worked in the tax year by the number of employees. Both for-profit and tax-exempt companies are eligable. More than 60 percent of small employers, or more than 4 million firms, will be eligable for these credits.

To learn more about this tax credit, I encourage you to view the IRS guidance issued on the tax credit at http://www.irs.gov The IRS also created a sheet of questions and answers which can be found on the IRS website at http://irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=220839,00.html If you have additional questions about the credit, you can contact the IRS helpline at 1-800-829-4933.