If you or your employees have children under the age of 27, you can now add them to your health coverage plans tax-free for both you and your staff. The IRS announced these changes on April 27 (
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-10-38.pdf).
The change goes into effect immediately for employers with cafeteria plans -- plans that allow employees to choose from a menu of tax-free benefit options and cash or taxable benefits. Employees can immediately make pre-tax contributions to pay for this benefit under the new IRS rules.
The change in law took effect March 30, 2010, which means you can take advantage of this change as soon as your health insurer permits it on your policy.
Each insurer is handling the change differently. Now that major insurers agreed to start the new coverage early, it's likely others will jump on the bandwagon. If you provide your employees' health insurance through another provider, call your representative and find out what your provider plans to do.
This expanded health care applies to both workplace and retiree health insurance. It also applies to self-employed individuals. So if you run a business and file on a Schedule C, you will still be eligible to take advantage of this new tax benefit.
