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Long-Term Care Insurance Can Be a Tax-Free Perk

  

Company-Provided Policy:
A Multi-Layered Benefit


As the Baby Boom generation continues to age, there is an increasing interest in insurance to pay some of the high costs involved in staying in a long-term care facility. Your family business can provide group

coverage for yourself and your employees. If you are interested in long term care insurance, it can be be worthwhile to obtain the coverage through your business — rather than as an individual.

We’ll explain why, but first, let’s go over some basic tax information about long term care insurance. A qualified long-term care policy is considered health insurance under federal income tax rules. If you buy a qualified policy as an individual, the premiums paid are treated as medical expenses for itemized deduction purposes on your tax return.

However, there are limits. You can only treat the age-based amounts listed below as medical costs (these numbers are adjusted annually for inflation). Don’t forget to count premiums paid for coverage on your spouse, as well as premiums paid for a family member who is eligible to be your dependent for tax purposes.

 


Age on 12/31/10


Maximum Amount
Treated as a Medical Expense
for 2010

Age on  12/31/11

Maximum Amount
Treated as a Medical Expense
for 2011

40 or under

$330

40 or under

$ 340

41 to 50

620

41 to 50

   640

51 to 60

1,230

51 to 60

 1,270

61 to 70

3,290

61 to 70

 3,390

Older than age 70

4,110

Older
than age 70

 4,240


 

Don’t get too enthusiastic about the tax savings received by individual taxpayers, because this is only part of the story. The next step is to take these age-based amounts and combine them with your other medical expenses (such as health and dental insurance premiums, insurance co-payments, out-of-pocket prescription costs, and other unreimbursed medical outlays). If the resulting total exceeds 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income (AGI), you can write off the excess as an itemized medical expense on your Schedule A. But if you can’t get over the 7.5 percent of AGI hurdle, you get no tax savings. Worse yet, there’s an even stricter limit under the dreaded alternative minimum tax rules that states you can only deduct medical expenses to the extent they exceed 10 percent of AGI.

Note: If you personally pay premiums for a long-term care policy that is not a qualified policy, the premiums are treated as a nondeductible personal expense. (Internal Revenue Code Section 213(d)(1))

Tax Savings if Your Business Operates as a C Corporation

As you can see, the write-offs taxpayers receive for long-term care insurance can often be less than expected. However, the tax rules are much more generous if you run your own business as a C corporation, work for the firm as a shareholder-employee, and provide the insurance as a fringe benefit.

Qualified vs. Non-Qualified

   The difference between a qualified plan (which is tax deductible) and a non-qualified plan (which is not deductible) lies mainly in what triggers the benefits. A tax-qualified plan must meet certain criteria, including a medical certification that the necessary care will last at least 90 days. Another requirement specifies the kind of care needed during that time.
If you’re expecting to get tax benefits from a long-term care plan, check with your tax advisor to make sure the plan is qualified.

Strategy: Have your C corporation provide company-paid qualified long-term care coverage as an employee benefit for selected employees, such as yourself. The coverage is eligible for the same tax-advantaged treatment as regular company-paid health insurance.

Implications: This means the corporation can generally deduct 100 percent of the premiums as a business expense (the age-based deduction limits don’t apply when the insurance is provided as an employee benefit). As a covered employee, you don’t have to report any taxable income from the company-paid premiums or any benefit payments you might receive under the policy.

The same tax-advantages apply to company-paid coverage for your spouse and for your dependent parent or grandparent (this assumes you pay over half the support for that person and that he or she doesn’t file a joint federal income tax return). You can also provide tax-favored long-term disability coverage for other family members who are employed by your corporation and for any other employees you want to provide with this extra benefit.

What about employees you would rather not cover? No problem. You don’t need to provide coverage to them, because there are no nondiscrimination rules for long-term care insurance provided as an employee benefit. (IRC Sections 105(b) and (e), 106(a) and 7702B(a)(3))

Tax-Saving Strategy for Sole Proprietors And Single-Member LLCs

Now let’s say you run your business as a sole proprietorship or single-member LLC, which is treated as a sole proprietorship for federal tax purposes. In these scenarios, a good tax-saving strategy is to hire your spouse as a bona fide employee of the business. Then, arrange to have your business provide 

Note: If you can’t hire your spouse as an employee, you can still claim a self-employed health insurance deduction for the age-based long-term care insurance premium amounts listed earlier. This is an “above-the-line” write-off entered on Form 1040, which means you don’t need to itemize and you don’t have to worry about the 7.5 percent of AGI rule either. Ask your tax adviser for more information.

health insurance coverage and long-term care insurance as a fringe benefit for your employee-spouse. Your spouse can then elect family coverage that protects you and other family members who are dependents. Under this arrangement, you can deduct 100 percent of the premiums on your Schedule C. The age-based long-term care insurance deduction limits don’t apply so there’s no taxable income for the covered individuals. As with a C corporation, you don’t have to provide coverage for other employees, because there are no nondiscrimination rules for this benefit. (Sources: IRC Sections 162(a)(1) and 105(b); IRS Revenue Ruling 71-588; IRS Technical Advice Memo 9409006; and IRS Industry Specialized Program Settlement Guideline for Health Insurance Deductibility for Self-Employed Individuals)

Important: Make sure the value of the insurance coverage, plus any other compensation given to an employee, is reasonable for the work performed. 

Rules for S Corporations

If you run your business as an S corporation, the company can pay for qualified long-term care insurance premiums on behalf of shareholder-employees, including you. If you are a more-than-two-percent shareholder, the company-paid premiums that benefit you are treated as additional taxable wages on your Form W-2. The extra amount can be deducted by your S corp and can be exempt from the Social Security and Medicare taxes with proper planning. (IRS Notice 92-16 and Revenue Ruling 91-26) 

You can then claim a write-off on Form 1040 equal to 100 percent of the age-based premium amount listed earlier. It is included as part of self-employed health insurance premiums.

Contact your employee benefits professional if you want more information about long-term care insurance and how to maximize the tax breaks available to business owners.


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