business coalition for benefits tax equity
DESCRIPTION
Business Coalition for Benefits Tax Equity to support the Tax Parity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act of 2011TRANSCRIPT
Business Coalition for
Benefits Tax Equity
Tax Parity for Health Plan
Beneficiaries Act of 2011
H.R. 2088 & S. 1171
Business Coalition for Benefits Tax Equity
Partner Benefits
291 Fortune 500 companies offer
health benefits to employees’
domestic partners
221
124
216
265286 291
1990 1995 2000 2004 2006 2008 2010
Business Coalition for Benefits Tax Equity
Issue: The Tax Burden
for Partner Benefits
Federal Law treats
• Spousal health coverage as tax-exempt
wages/income
• Partner health coverage as taxable
wages/income
Increases Employer Payroll Tax
and Employee Income Tax burdens
Business Coalition for Benefits Tax Equity
Issue: The Tax Burden
for Partner Benefits
Single Employee
Employee with a
Spouse
Employee with a
Domestic Partner
Annual Employee Salary $32,000 $32,000 $32,000
Monthly Employer
Contributions for Benefits
Annualized
$335
$4,020
$907
$10,884
$907
$10,884
Imputed Income -0- -0-10,884 - 4,020 =
$6,864
Taxable Income $32,000 $32,00032,000 + 6,864 =
$38,864
Employee’s 2006 Tax
Liability $3,155 $3,155 $4,710
Domestic partner vs. spousal benefits:
nearly 50% increase in tax liability
In Numbers...
Business Coalition for Benefits Tax Equity
Tax Parity for Health Plan
Beneficiaries Act
• Would end the tax inequities that apply
to employer-provided health insurance
for domestic partners
– House: Introduced 6/21/2011•Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA)
•Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
– Senate: Introduced 6/2/2011•Sen. Richard Hanna (R-NY)
•Nan Hayworth (R-NY)
Business Coalition for Benefits Tax Equity
Business Case for Support
• Eliminates unfair taxation that hurts your bottom line and places an extra
financial burden on employees
• Eliminates administrative burdensof separate record keeping and imputed income
calculations for partner benefits
• Reinforces corporate reputationas a champion of workplace fairness
– Drive recruitment and retention of dedicated,
fair-minded employees
Business Coalition for Benefits Tax Equity
Join the Business Coalition
Domestic partner health benefits have been a key part of our effort to
attract and retain a qualified and diverse workforce, and we are
pleased to support Representative McDermott’s legislation that would
end the tax penalties we and our employees face when we make
these benefits available.
– Julie Fasone Holder, corporate vice president for human resources, diversity & inclusion
and public affairs at the Dow Chemical Company
”
“
Business Coalition for Benefits Tax Equity
More than 80 businesses support...
Aetna, Hartford, CT
A.H. Wilder Foundation, St. Paul, MN
Alaska Air Group Inc., Seattle, WA
Alcoa Inc., Pittsburgh, PA
AMR Corp. (American Airlines), Ft. Worth, TX
American Benefits Council, Washington, DC
Ameriprise Financial Inc., Minneapolis, MN
AT&T Inc., Dallas, TX
Bank of America Corp., Charlotte, NC
Bausch & Lomb Inc., Rochester, NY
Best Buy Co. Inc., Richfield, MN
Bingham McCutchen LLP, Boston, MA
BlueCross BlueShield of MN, Eagan, MN
Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corp, Ridgefield, CT
Capital One Financial Corp., Falls Church, VA
Cardinal Health Inc., Dublin, OH
Carlson Companies, Minneapolis, MN
Charles Schwab & Co Inc., San Francisco, CA
The Chubb Corp., Warren, NJ
Citigroup Inc., New York, NY
CNA Insurance, Chicago, IL
College & University Professional Association
for Human Resources, Knoxville, TN
Corning Inc., Corning, NY
Cullen Weston Pines & Bach LLP, Madison, WI
Day One, South Portland, ME
Deloitte LLP, New York, NY
Delta Air Lines Inc., Atlanta, GA
Diageo North America, Norwalk, CT
The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, MI
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY
ERISA Industry Committee, Washington, DC
Ernst & Young, New York, NY
Exelon Corp., Chicago, IL
General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, MN
GlaxoSmithKline plc, Philadelphia, PA
Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York, NY
Google Inc., Mountain View, CA
Herman Miller Inc., Zeeland, MI
Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, CA
HSBC North America, New York, NY
IBM Corp., Armonk, NY
ICMA Retirement Corp., Washington, DC
Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., New York, NY
JetBlue Airways Corp., Forest Hills, NY
KPMG LLP, New York, NY
Levi Strauss & Co., San Francisco, CA
Marriott International Inc., Bethesda, MD
Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., New York, NY
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Springfield, MA
Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, MN
Merck & Co. Inc., New York, NY
MetLife Inc., New York, NY
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA
MillerCoors Brewing Co., Chicago, IL
Moody's Corp., New York, NY
Morgan Stanley, New York, NY
Motorola, Schaumburg, IL
Nationwide, Columbus, OH
Nike Inc., Beaverton, OR
Ocera Therapeutics, San Diego, CA
PG&E Corp., San Francisco, CA
PricewaterhouseCoopers, New York, NY
Project for Pride in Living, Minneapolis, MN
Prudential Financial, Newark, NJ
Quorum Review Inc., Seattle, WA
Replacements Ltd., Greensboro, NC
Russell Investment Group, Tacoma, WA
Sempra Energy, San Diego, CA
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM),
Alexandria, VA
State Street Corp., Boston, MA
Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, New York,
NY
Thomson Reuters, New York, NY
TIAA-CREF, New York, NY
Time Warner Inc., New York, NY
UBS AG, Stamford, CT
Verizon Communications Inc., New York, NY
Winston & Strawn LLP, Chicago, IL
World at Work, Washington, DC
Xerox Corp., Rochester, NY
Business Coalition for Benefits Tax Equity
Business Coalition for Benefits
Tax Equity
• www.hrc.org/bcbte for latest information
• Contact Derek Dorn of Davis & Harman
LLP (202)662-2290 to join
• E-mail [email protected] for a copy of
these slides