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" Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
Thomas Jefferson
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Our Mission:
We believe that nothing is more important than serving the needs of our clients. We like to touch base on a regular basis so that we know what you need and how to help. We send our Client Call to you each month to let you know that your business is important to us. In every issue, we strive to find the most interesting, effective information and web-based tools for our clients.
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PrivacyPolicy |
The ClientCall is distributed to customers of Kenneth Robbins Insurance Services, and others recipients, by request. We do not sell, rent or share our subscribers' information (subscriber name, company and email address). We highly value our customer's privacy as well as their trust in our discretion and services. If you have any questions regarding our policies, please do not hesitate to contact us. |
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We welcome your suggestions as to how we can expand our customer care, so please feel free call or send us a fax or email. If you need supplies or service, we consider that a priority and will endeavor to meet your needs in the most expedient manner. Telephone: 818.884.8554, Fax: 818.884.6696 and Email: robbinsinsurance@attglobal.net
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Good afternoon:
This month, we'll skip the light-hearted, witty intro and get right down to business; we have a lot to cover in this edition of your ClientCall.
The health care reform bill is now signed and the implementation of the bill is in progress - some aspects of the bill will be effective immediately and we want you to be fully informed so that you can bring your company into compliance with the new law.
HR 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will not be fully deployed until 2016, however, you may count on us to keep you up to date as other aspects of the bill are about to be introduced. We urge you to contact us with any questions you have about the PPACA.
Below is a synopsis of certain provisions of the bill that are relevant to your company.
Grandfathered Health Plans: Individuals and employer group plans that wish to keep their
current policy on a grandfathered basis may do so only if plan changes made were to add or delete new employees or any new dependents. In addition, an exception is
made for employers that have scheduled plan changes as a result of a collective bargaining agreement.
Impact: Effective Immediately
Small Employer Tax Credits: Makes available tax credits for qualified small employer contributions to purchase coverage for employees. In order to qualify, the business must have no more than 25 full-time equivalent employees, pay average annual wages of less than $50,000 and provide qualifying coverage.
The full amount of the credit will be available to employers with 10 or fewer employees and average annual wages of less than $25,000, and will phase out when those thresholds are exceeded. Small employers will receive a maximum credit of up to 50% of premiums for up to 2 years if the employer contributes at least 50% of the total premium cost. The credit would phase out entirely for employers of more than 25 employees whose average annual salaries exceeded $50,000.
Employers will not be eligible to use the credit for certain employees: "seasonal workers," self-employed individuals, two percent shareholders of an S corporation (as defined by section 1372(b), five percent owners of a small business (as defined by section 416(i)(1)(B)(i)) and dependents or other household members. However, leased employees are eligible employees for the credit. Employers receiving credits will be denied any deduction for health insurance costs equal to the credit amount
Impact: Effective Immediately
BCBS Plans: Limits the special deduction for Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations of 25% of the amount by which certain claims, liabilities, and expenses incurred on cost-plus contracts exceed the organizations' adjusted surplus. The special deduction will be available only to those otherwise qualifying BCBSA plans that expend at least 85% of their total premium on reimbursement for clinical services provided to enrollees. (Taxable years beginning after December 31, 2009).
Impact: Effective Immediately
Employer Subsidies of Medicare Part D Premiums: Elimination of employer deductible subsidy under Medicare Part D. This provision will have an immediate impact on employers' liability and income statements -- FAS 109 requires employers to
immediately take a charge against current earnings to reflect the higher anticipated tax costs and higher FAS 106 liability.
Under ASC 740, the expense or benefit related to adjusting deferred tax liabilities and assets as a result of a change in tax laws must be recognized in income from continuing operations for the period that includes the enactment date. Therefore, the expense resulting from this change will be recognized in the first quarter of 2010 even though the change in law may not be effective until later years.
Impact: Immediate accounting impact, but applies to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2010
Therapeutic Discovery Tax Credit: Creates a federal tax credit for businesses with 250 or fewer employees that make a qualified investment in acute and chronic disease research during 2009 or 2010.
Impact: Effective immediately and based on investments paid in taxable years beginning in 2009 or 2010. |
| Enterpreneur.com |
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Plan Ahead for a Disaster
Here are 5 steps you can take in 5 minutes to protect your business and be resilient at the worst times.
By Donna R. Childs, June 16, 2008
The most valuable information I can share with you is to improve your business processes from lessons learned by our peers in the small business community... click here for the full article: Plan Ahead |
 InternetIntel |
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We think it's time for a little emergency preparedness refresher, especially after the recent tectonic plate readjustment in Mexico.
If you've lived in SoCal for any length of time, you probably know most of this information - you might even have an Ice-Qube kit in your car's trunk or in the house (November 2009 ClientCall). Still, Mother Nature likes to surprise us, so let's review the basics of emergency preparedness.
We could give you a lot of links, but FEMA covers the topic well and in-depth. Click on this link for information on how to prepare in advance of an earthquake and their "Six Ways to Plan Ahead" information. It's a quick read, but offers very valuable advice.
FEMA recommends their Ready.gov web sites to help you do three key things: (1) get an emergency supply kit, (2) make a family emergency plan, and (3) be informed about the different types of emergencies that could occur and their appropriate responses.
The Ready program covers Ready Business and Ready Kids will help you protect your family and your business.
Shakeout.org: This is a really great site for earthquake preparedness. It aggregates info from federal, state and corporate sources to help you prepare for the next earth-shaking experience.
* Legal disclaimer: Kenneth Robbins Insurance Services and the ClientCall provide information and links to web sites to our readers as a courtesy . We do not endorse, guarantee or substantiate any of the information provided; it is the reader's responsibility to carefully review all information given herein. |
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"Employment Tax National Research Project." More fun stuff: the IRS has begun a project that will randomly select 6000 companies for a comprehensive audit of their employment taxes. TheIRS' Employment Tax National Research Project is intended to accomplish the following : (i) secure statistically valid information for computing the "employment tax gap" (which is the difference between the amount of taxes collected and the amount of taxes actually owed- estimated to be more than $200 billion annually) and (ii) determine compliance characteristics so that the IRS can focus on the most noncompliant employment tax areas. The plan is for the examinations to focus on returns filed for calendar years 2007 and 2008. The IRS may, however, expand the scope of the examinations to include earlier and later years if "merited." Oh, joy. This is one lottery that we really hope that none of us wins... |
| About Us:
Kenneth Robbins Insurance Services
20501 Ventura Blvd., Suite 384
Woodland Hills, California 91364
Tel: 818.884.8554,
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