by Ryan F. Donovan
Updating Author: Alice Gilman
Summary
This guide provides HR and payroll professionals with guidance on how to correctly structure various types of employee health, retirement and other common benefits and benefit plans, and how to handle and report the related contributions, reimbursements and distributions in compliance with the federal Internal Revenue Code.
In this guide, learn about:
- General tax considerations
- Health insurance
- Taxability of contributions
- Health care reform legislation
- Plan requirements for FICA and FUTA exclusion
- Same-sex couple benefits
- Employer-paid physical exams
- Employer-paid medical travel benefits
- Nondiscrimination requirements
- Excess reimbursements
- Payments for disfigurement or limb loss
- Form W‑2 reporting of health insurance costs
- Health insurance coverage information reporting
- Medical savings accounts
- Eligibility rules
- Contribution rules
- Earnings and distributions rules
- Reporting requirements
- Long-term care insurance
- COBRA noncompliance penalties
- Health reimbursement arrangements
- Qualifications for income exclusion
- Qualified small employer HRAs
- Reimbursements paid with debit and credit cards
- HRA nondiscrimination rules
- Health savings accounts
- Taxation of contributions
- Reporting requirements
- Sick pay
- Sick days
- Sick pay under a plan
- State paid family and medical leave programs
- Tax treatment of PFML contributions and benefits
- PFML reporting rules
- Permanent disability benefits
- Workers’ compensation benefits
- Cafeteria plans
- Health flexible spending arrangements
- Integration into group health plans
- Taxation and reporting requirements
- Medical loss rebates
- Dependent care assistance
- IRC § 401(k) plans and group-term life insurance
- Retirement and deferred compensation plans
- Qualified pension and profit-sharing plans
- Section 401(k) plans
- Individual retirement accounts
- Simplified employee pensions
- Employee stock ownership plans
- Nonqualified retirement plans
- Future developments
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About the author

Ryan F. Donovan
Ryan F. Donovan is an experienced payroll professional and has expertise in a number of different areas including HRIS, payroll processing, HR compliance, project management and process creation and improvement.
Mr. Donovan possesses an MBA and an MHR from Ottawa University in Kansas. He has also earned the Certified Payroll Professional designation from the American Payroll Association, and the Professional in Human Resources designation from the Human Resources Certification Institute.
About the author

Alice Gilman
Alice Gilman, an employment tax compliance expert, has created two best-selling payroll compliance publications – Payroll Legal Alert, and The Payroll Compliance Handbook, currently published by Business Management Daily.
She was a contributing editor to Alexander Hamilton Institute’s Benefits Alert, Personnel Legal Alert, and Manager’s Legal Bulletin newsletters; the Complete Compliance Guide to Federal and State Employment Laws; the Complete COBRA Compliance Kit; the Complete FLSA Compliance Kit; and the Complete HIPAA Compliance Kit.
At Aspen Publishers, Ms. Gilman was a contributing editor to the Payroll Manager’s Letter, the American Payroll Association’s Basic Guide to Payroll, How to Slash Payroll Costs, and the Fingertip Guide to Payroll Practice.
Ms. Gilman is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany and received her law degree from the University of Bridgeport.
She is admitted to the New York State Bar and is a member of the American Payroll Association.
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