So, I thought I would share with you just to let you know there are tax incentives out there for business owners who hire new workers.  Basically, if you hire a new employee who has not been employed 40 hours for 60 days before you hired them, you will be exempted from paying the 6.2% of their Social Security Tax.  That could add up to thousands of dollars per new  employee.

In addition, if the new hired employee is still employed with you for a year you will get a $1,000 retention credit per new hired worker. Not too bad.

Here are a few points and details to the plan.  You will have to have an employee fill out a W-11 Form.

• Employees must not be employed 40 hours for the previous 60 days from once you have hired them.
• Employee must be hired between February 3rd, 2010 and January 1, 2011.
• Cannot be someone related to you.
• You cannot terminate someone just to hire a new employee to take advantage of this program.

I will be speaking on Health Reform, directed to business owners and HR professionals who would like to know more about what responsibilities they will have with the new Health Reform already in place and what to expect next year.

Great food catered by Christiani’s to all who attend.  Please see below for more details:

What: Joint East and South Des Moines Chamber Lunch and Learn

Topic: Health Reform by Carl Lingen of Employer Ease

When: Tuesday, July 20th  11:30 to 1:00pm

Where: 5711 SW 9th Street, Des Moines, IA Christ the King Parish
Hope to see you there for an informative meeting.

Listening to a NPR story, detailed the events of Hennepin County, in Minneapolis, Minnesota office that is doing just that. They have switched to what is called a “work results only environment” (ROWE).  In this environment employees make up their own schedule and do not have to ask for time off as long as their work is done by the deadline.

Does this work?

The county office, who handles public support cases says that their process used to take 2 ½ weeks and now they are down to 5 days or less. So impressive that rumors of layoffs were circulating in the office.

Here are some interesting things and challenges that come from ROWE:

1. All meetings are voluntary, but you are responsible for anything within a meeting. Eventually, people realize how many ineffective meetings they were holding.

2. Relearn how you communicate. Talking to someone next to you is completely different then having to communicate with two people who are at their homes.

3. Don’t have to ask for days off or early leave as long as the work is getting done, but could lead to employees building up massive amounts of vacation days.

To find out more information about this article please read it here.

The reason for the cap is to raise more than $13 billion over the next 10 years to help pay for health care legislation. (Which is now around $1.2 trillion right now.)

Two things are fundamentally wrong with doing this.  First, a flexible spending account is a great way to save pre-tax dollars and pay for items not covered by medical, dental, or vision insurance.  It holds the individual responsible for their own health, and it has been proven plans that drive a consumer to be accountable for where THEIR money is being allocated make better choices.

It seems that any plan that makes the individual responsible for their health insurance congress wants to destroy or significantly limit. These plans help customize care for individuals while keeping down the cost of insurance.

Second, if F.S.A.’s are going to be limited will Health Reimbursement Accounts (H.R.A’s) and Health Savings Accounts (H.S.A.’s) also be eliminated or limited as well?  An H.S.A. allows individuals to either themselves or their employer to put in pre-tax dollars into an account that can be carried over year after year to spend on medical care.  I do not see any other reason why congress would want to limit these types of plans unless they want to systematically eliminate any type of consumer driven healthcare.

My third point comes from a statement made in the AP article that the reason they are capping the F.S.A.’s is to help raise money for the new health bill.  Unfortunately, politicians think the average American is an idiot and do not think that if they cap one pre-tax vehicle that the average American will not put money into another type of pre-tax vehicle, such as an individual H.S.A., 401(k), or SEP IRA. The fundamental belief that they are going to raise all this money by simply capping one pre-tax vehicle is absurd.  People will find other ways to shield their money from taxes driving that $13 billion number considerably down.