2019 income levels for estimating tax credits

Income limits for Tax Credits on Healthcare.gov

HSA contribution levels

2019 HSA contribution limit changes

Give back & get healthy!

Nutrition is an important part of living a healthy lifestyle and it has become a growing trend in our nation to not only eat better but to support our local farmers and businesses. Eating unprocessed foods is a great way to make a change in your eating habits.

In our area farmer’s markets have become very popular and are not held just on the weekend any longer. The days of a farmer’s market just having a few food stalls is mostly in the past, now you can find a wide range of goods from clothing to bird feeders and household items. Farmer’s markets have even become a place to socialize; stretch your legs and take a stroll through the vendor stands, stop and listen to a local musician or catch up with a friend and enjoy the welcoming atmosphere!

Not sure where to start? Below are a few of the local options you can find for farmer’s markets.

Farmer’s Markets:
Green Bay –
• Downtown Green Bay: Saturdays (5/26/18 – 10/27/18) from 7am to noon http://www.downtowngreenbay.com/events/saturdayfarmersmarket
• On Broadway: Wednesdays (5/30/18 – 9/26/18) from 3pm to 8pm http://onbroadway.org/events/farmers-market
• Definitely DePere Market: Thursdays (6/21/18 – 9/27/18) from 3pm to 7pm https://definitelydepere.org/downtown-de-pere-farmers-market/
• Market on Military: Thursdays (6/7/18 – 10/25/18) from 3pm to 7pm http://militaryave.org/market-on-military/

Appleton –
Downtown Appleton: Saturdays (6/2/18 – 10/27/18) from 8am to 12:30pm https://appletondowntown.org/downtown-appleton-farm-market/

Manitowoc –
City of Manitowoc Farmers Market: Saturdays (May thru October) 8am to 1pm & Tuesdays (June thru September) 12 noon to 5pm https://www.manitowoc.org/298/Farmers-Market

Seymour –
City of Seymour Farmers Market: Fridays (June thru October) 2pm to 6pm https://bestfarmersmarkets.org/place/seymour-farmers-market-seymour-wi.html

What is an HSA or Health Savings Account?

An HSA or Health Savings Account allows account owners to pay for current health care expenses and save for those in the future.

Contributions to your HSA are tax-deductible. Why not make what you’re paying for your health care tax free? You have until the annual filing deadline to make contributions for the previous tax year. The best part is, you don’t have to itemize to claim the deduction as you write off the deposits on line 25 of your federal 1040
For tax year 2018, the contribution limits are set at $3,450 if you have individual coverage and $6,900 for families.
If you don’t use all the contributions you will receive interest and that interest earned is tax-free.
When you take a distribution from your HSA you don’t pay any taxes as long as you’re using the money for qualified medical expenses (See IRS publication 502 for more details). If you decide to use HSA funds for something other than healthcare, you might have to pay regular income tax on the money along with an additional 20% tax penalty (This will change after age 65. See IRS publication 969 for more details)
An HSA is The money in your HSA remains available for future qualified medical expenses even if you change health insurance plans, change employers or retire. Funds left in your account continue to grow tax free.
Most HSAs issue a debit card, so you can pay for your prescription medication and other expenses right away. If you wait for a bill to come in the mail, you can call the billing center and make a payment over the phone using your debit card.
You have to keep your receipts to prove that withdrawals were used for qualified health expenses.

What can I use it for?

Qualified expenses include most services provided by licensed health providers, as well as diagnostic devices and prescriptions. Allowable expenses are explained fully in IRS publication 502 Continue reading →

Delaying Medicare Part B is a decision to not take lightly…

Did you know that if your employer group plan is small, delaying the Part B enrollment could create a penalty?
When you are eligible for Medicare usually at 65 you are required to maintain creditable coverage or enroll into the Medicare program with parts A, B, & D. In most situations employer group is considered creditable and you can delay the enrollment and stay on the group plan, but not always.
You may want to wait to sign up for Medicare Part A (hospital service) and/or Part B (outpatient medical services) if you are working for an employer with more than 20 employees when you turn 65, and have healthcare coverage through your job or union, or through your spouse’s job. COBRA is not considered employer group coverage.
*If you are disabled under 65 and working (or you have coverage from a working family member), the Special Enrollment Period rules also apply as long as the employer has more than 100 employees.
When deciding to delay your Medicare enrollment it is important to determine if you will qualify for Special Enrollment Period (SEP).
You can get a Special Enrollment Period to sign up for Parts A and/or B:
• Any time you are still covered by the employer or union group health plan through your or your spouse’s current or active employment, OR
• Within 8 months following the month the employer or union group health plan coverage ends or when the employment ends (whichever is first).
If you wait longer, you may have to pay a penalty when you join.
When in doubt it is important to schedule an appointment with the local social security office and have them assist you in making the best decision for you.

Stay local it really matters

Don’t Be Scared… we’ve got you! Health insurance can be overwhelming and scary at times. There are plenty of commercials, online ads and even people that go door to door. Many times these situations use scare tactics, trying to push you towards a provider or plan that may not be your best option. Never be afraid to say “no” or feel like you have to provide personal information to someone you are not comfortable with.

While there is a lot of information available to consumers, it can be difficult to interpret. There is no need to feel intimidated; this is where your local agent can help you. An agent should be there for you, to educate you on your options, help with issues and give you peace of mind; not only the day of your appointment but for years ahead.

Whether you have a simple question, or would like to stop by for an appointment please feel free to call our office 920-544-0058! We are here to help you.

What is a silent tax return in regards to compliance with the individual mandate provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?

What is a silent tax return in regards to compliance with the individual mandate provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?

Here is the information from the IRS website. Sited below. “This in not tax advise only a resource to answer questions for clients whom choose to use non-ACA compliant plans.”

ACA Executive Order and Current Tax Filing Season

The IRS is currently reviewing the Jan. 20, 2017, executive order to determine the implications. Taxpayers should continue to file their tax returns as they normally would.

The instruction for individual taxpayers involving the Affordable Care Act has been to indicate on their Form 1040 filing whether they had health insurance, an exemption from coverage or made a shared responsibility payment. In recent years, tax returns silent in that regard were still processed. This year, the IRS put in place system changes that would reject tax returns during processing in instances where the taxpayer didn’t provide that information.

The recent executive order directed federal agencies to exercise authority and discretion available to them to reduce potential burden.‎ Consistent with that, the IRS has decided to make changes that would continue to allow electronic and paper returns to be accepted for processing in instances where a taxpayer doesn’t indicate their coverage status.

However, legislative provisions of the ACA law are still in force until changed by the Congress, and taxpayers remain required to follow the law and pay what they may owe‎.

Processing silent returns means that taxpayer returns are not systemically rejected by the IRS at the time of filing, allowing the returns to be processed and minimizing burden on taxpayers, including those expecting a refund. When the IRS has questions about a tax return, taxpayers may receive follow-up questions and correspondence at a future date, after the filing process is completed‎. This is similar to how we handled this in previous years, and this reflects the normal IRS post-filing compliance procedures that we follow.

At the below link you can read the full story and have access to links for:

Individuals
Businesses
Reporting requirements
Payroll clients
General resources

https://www.irs.gov/…/aca-information-center-for-tax-profes…

July 28, 2017 – updates regarding individual insurance

I promised you that as updates happened to the Affordable Care Act that I would give you a clear concise analysis of what the updates are and how they apply to you. Last night’s vote in the Senate did nothing to the current law of the land. The law does however have some issues that are coming up. One of the issues is the expiration of funding for the subsidies used to assist people with the high deductibles and coinsurance when they have a lower income, defined as at or below 250% of the federal poverty level. These payments to the insurers are scheduled to stop this year. Insurers are obligated by the Affordable Care Act to grant the subsidies, known as cost-sharing reductions, to eligible customers. At this point, failure to address this issue is expected to increase premiums for individual coverage 15 – 30% for 2018¹. Currently companies offering individual plans have filed rates with the commissioner with the prediction that these payments will stop and have a chance to change the rate before the plans are actually set to release. I, like you, will be waiting for the November 1^st release date to actually see the rates.

The state of Wisconsin could do something to help reduce the price hikes for premiums for Wisconsinites. The state could apply for at 13:32 waiver and set up a program to help with the very ill. This waiver is what the state did to keep the BadgerCare plus program for children under 19³.

Currently approximately 20% of the population creates 80% of the health care costs in this county ⁴. If the state were to create this waiver they could in act an underlying program that helped the insurance carriers mitigate the costs to consumers while working with providers to manage this specific populations cost in a more cost effective and innovative manner much like the HIRSP of old ⁵.

The time is now for them to act but I have heard nothing. I also have heard no mention of cost control or requiring providers of healthcare to disclose prices so consumers are aware and can shop if they want to. I have seen more and more difficulty trying to determining pricing before procedures and no transparency. Please be aware many hospitals will not send out detailed billing unless you specifically request it.

To date companies that offer individual insurance in Wisconsin have reported large losses. If there are any winners with the ACA it is not the insurance companies. The only ones seeing record profits are the hospital systems ⁶. Anthem Blue Cross has decided to stop offering individual coverage in Wisconsin except for in one smaller County. Wisconsin now only has 13 companies statewide that will be selling individual plans ². Remember plans are regional and in most counties you may have 2 or 3 carrier options. In some counties like Kewaunee you will only have one company in others it is rumored that there might be no options. People often come to me and say, “Well I will just go off the marketplace and buy a plan.” What people fail to grasp is that if they are not selling… they are not selling…. There is no magic plan that I can find for you.

The options today are:

ACA Compliant coverage (true health insurance regulated by the Commissioner of Insurance with no cap on coverage and no underwriting)
Short term (underwritten, 91 days at a time.) Changes to this option have made it difficult to use and not appropriate for most consumers.
Alternative plans (They are out there and they are underwritten. They are often called Christian plans but buyers beware as they are not regulated by the Commissioner of insurance – much like banking without FDIC protections.)
Indemnity plans ( This is often toted as an option but read the fine print as they really just pay you directly a small portion of what the bill actually is. You may still have huge medical bills)

New Rules for Medicare Cards on the Horizon

Effective April 2018 Medicare will start sending new Medicare Cards. Medicare will no longer use the Social Security number on your Medicare card. With feedback from providers and the spike in identity theft, Medicare has decided that it makes sense to change the current practice. With the passage of MACRA “Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program Re-authorization ACT of 2015” the changes will be phased in over a from April 2018 to December 31, 2019.

The new cards will have a randomly generated Medicare Beneficiary Identifier. They will be 11 characters long and be a mixture of numbers and upper case letters.

Calcium Score…do you know yours?

Heart disease continues to be the number one killer of both men and women. But when found early, heart disease can be treated and oftentimes reversed.

What is heart calcium scoring?

Heart calcium scoring is a screening test that can help reveal heart disease in its early stages, even years before you have a symptom. The test is fast, pain free and safe. There are no needles or dyes. It’s similar in many ways to receiving an x-ray. Yet the results can help save your life.

Who can benefit most?

In general, if you are a man over 30 or a woman over 40, or if you have the following risk factors, you should consider having a heart calcium scoring:

¨ High cholesterol levels

¨ Family history of heart disease

¨ Diabetes

¨ High blood pressure

¨ Cigarette smoking

¨ Overweight or obese

¨ Physically inactive

This test is offered to you by most of our local area hospitals. Currently most insurance plans are not covering this screening and that goes for Medicare too. But it is very affordable. The test costs you about $50.00. Some do charge more so don’t be afraid to shop around.