The Cadillac Tax is a 40 percent tax that won’t be tax deductible and that will be levied on employer-sponsored health coverage that offers high-cost benefits. The annual tax is scheduled to take effect in 2018 – although it’s not without opposition.

What is the purpose of the Cadillac Tax?

The Cadillac Tax has been put into place as a way to reduce the tax preferred treatment of employers that provide health care as well as to reduce any excess health care spending by both employees and employers. Additionally, the Cadillac Tax will assist with financing health care coverage expansion under the PPACA (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).

The tax will be 40 percent of the health coverage cost that exceeds the threshold amounts that were predetermined—$27,500 for family coverage and $10,200 for individual coverage. However, these thresholds will be updated by 2018 to reflect inflation. This will include the contributions made by both the employer and their employees.

What is the potential impact of the Cadillac Tax?

The 40 percent tax is not something employers are going to want to pay, which is why many employers are already beginning to review and trim down their health plans in order to help minimize the impact of the Cadillac Tax.

Employers with generous health plans that include flexible spending accounts will be heavily affected by the Cadillac Tax. Flexible spending accounts are popular with employees since they let them put aside tax-free money for medical expenses. The tax threshold doesn’t just take into account the premiums, but will also factor in other benefits offered to employees by their employers, such as any money that’s put into their flexible spending accounts. What does this mean? Many employers are likely to begin limiting how much their employees can add to their FSA accounts—or they may simply stop offering them altogether. In addition to trimming down their health plans, this could lead to lower quality health plan options for employees.

For more information about the upcoming Cadillac Tax, contact us at the Benefits Store today.