If you are a small business owner with under 50 Full Time Employees, you are not legally required to provide health insurance. But if you do choose to provide health insurance for your employees, you may want to look into the SHOP tax credit.
What is SHOP?
SHOP stands for small business health options programs. If you are a small business owner with less than 50 Full Time Employees, you may be able to offer these plans to your employees.
Employers with more than 50 full time employees are required to provide health insurance. If you have less than 50 full time employees you may wish to do so anyway. A recent study indicated that 56 percent of U.S. adults with employer-sponsored health benefits said that whether or not they like their health coverage is a key factor in deciding to stay at their current job. Additionally, 46 percent said health insurance was either the deciding factor or a positive influence in choosing their current job.
So, if you wish to attract top talent, you may wish to consider health insurance even if you are not legally obligated to do so.
Eligibility
There can be different criteria for different states, so make sure to check your state’s marketplace. You can also check Healthcare.gov. Healthcare.gov can also redirect you to your state’s marketplace if you are unsure.
In order to be eligible for the SHOP, you must have between 1-50 full time employees. At least one of these employees cannot be a business owner or partner or spouse of the business owner or partner. Additionally at least 70% of your employees must elect to take part in the program.
On healthcare.gov you can find the full time employee calculator to help determine your eligibility. You can also find information regarding tax credits and discounts on employee health insurance.
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Jesse Smedley is the Principal Broker for iHealthBrokers and the founder, president, and CEO of Smedley Insurance Group, Inc. and iHealthBrokers.com. Since the inception of SIG in 2007, Jesse has been dedicated to helping people save money on their health insurance by providing them with resources to educate themselves on all their health insurance options, both under age 65 and Medicare beneficiaries. He is featured in many publications as well as writes regularly for expert columns regarding health insurance and Medicare.
