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Here is something you probably have not heard much about. Obamacare's 3.8% "Medicare surtax" will take effect in January. You already pay a 2.9% on your wages (you pay half and your employer pays the other half). Now, if you have income from interest, dividends, rents, and capital gains, you may take on an additional tax burden.
This could get messy. On Saturday, a terrible fire and explosions ripped through Nippon Shokubai Co.'s chemical plant in Himeji, Japan. Nippon Shokubai is one of the world's largest suppliers of acrylic acid, the main ingredient of resin called SAP, used in diapers.
FIGHT BREAST CANCER! WIN AN IPAD!
We are giving away a brand new Apple iPad 64GB to raise money in the fight against breast cancer!
The WSJ highlights the advent of the private exchange. Two large employers have announced that they transition away from a traditional employer-provided health plan to a private exchange.
The Summary of Benefits and Coverage Requirement within the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) becomes effective September 23, 2012. The ostensible purpose of the SBC requirement is to require that benefit information be passed to plan members in an easy to understand format and in a timely fashion. However, without a doubt it creates an additional administrative burden upon carriers and employers administering group health plans.
Texas Mutual offers five critical steps to controlling you workers' compensation costs. You will notice that none of them involve finding the cheapest available insurance coverage, yet all of them will impact the cost of that coverage in a huge way:
According to a nationwide survey, 58% of employers offer a "consumer driven health plan" to employees and their dependents. Consumer driven health plans are usually characterized by higher deductibles than traditional PPO plans as well as the elimination of co-pays. In return, the plans are available at lower premiums than traditional PPO plans.
Spending the morning reading the new 18 page IRS Notice 2012-58 defining full time employees under Obamacare is not ideal. Doubt me? You can read them yourself right here. The ACA broadly defines a full time employee as anyone working more than 30 hours a week.