by The MDTAXES Network | Jun 3, 2022 | 2022 June news, Practice Management, Practice Owner, Practice resources
The purpose of insurance is to protect against extraordinary or catastrophic financial losses. One potential loss to consider is when a terminated or disgruntled employee hires an attorney to sue your practice for wrongful termination or for an array of other situations while a member of your staff.
Employment Practices Liability Insurance, or EPLI for short, is the type of insurance that protects against claims filed by disgruntled employees. Expect to pay annual EPLI premiums based on the size of your staff and the dollar amount of wages paid. In the grand scheme of insurances, the premiums are generally quite reasonable, especially when compared with the potential for a sizable settlement that could financially devastate your practice.
For an EPLI quote, please reach out to the insurance agent where you obtain your Property and Casualty (P&C) insurances, which includes business liability, workers compensation, and malpractice. Your life, disability, or health insurance agent probably can’t help with EPLI.
If you are unlucky enough to ever receive that certified letter notifying you that your practice is being sued by a disgruntled or terminated employee, you will be very glad that you purchased EPLI. Simply pass that certified letter along to the insurance company that issued your EPLI policy, and they should take over from there. Since your EPLI company takes on much of the risk of losing money on the settlement, they take whatever steps are necessary to minimize the claim.
In the many years that we have helped our healthcare practices, we thankfully haven’t seen too many employment-related claims. Even so, they do happen from time to time, and sometimes the losses can be substantial. For that reason, we recommend that all our clients who own their own practice and employ staff consider purchasing EPLI.
And Don’t Forget About Cyber Insurance:
While you’re getting a quote for EPLI for your practice, please also inquiry about obtaining Cyber insurance for your practice to protect against the costs and headaches that follow a cyber breach.
by The MDTAXES Network | Jun 3, 2022 | 2022 June news, Practice Management, Practice Owner, Practice resources
If you haven’t already filed for forgiveness of your PPP2 loan, please do so soon. Otherwise, your PPP2 lender will require that you begin making payments on that loan. Any payments made will be refunded when the PPP loan is ultimately forgiven, but why not just take care of filing for full forgiveness now?
Start by contacting the PPP2 lender and finding the link to submit for full forgiveness. If you prefer to handle things like this on your own, here are a few articles on our website that might be helpful:
Otherwise, we can help you apply for PPP Loan Forgiveness with your lender. Our fee for to complete the Form 3508S is $750, discounted to $500 if you use our firm’s payroll service, while our fee is $1,000 to complete the Form 3508EZ or $1,500 for the Form 3508.
by The MDTAXES Network | Jun 2, 2022 | 2022 June news, Practice Management, Practice Owner, Practice resources
From IRS News IR-2022-104, May 6, 2022
WASHINGTON — With many businesses facing a tight job market, the Internal Revenue Service reminds employers to check out a valuable tax credit available for hiring long-term unemployment recipients and other groups of workers facing significant barriers to employment. For any business now hiring, the Work Opportunity Tax Credit may help.
What is the WOTC?
This long-standing tax benefit encourages employers to hire workers certified as members of any of ten targeted groups facing barriers to employment. the IRS notes that one of these targeted groups is long-term unemployment recipients who have been unemployed for at least 27 consecutive weeks and received state or federal unemployment benefits during part or all of that time. The WOTC is available for wages paid to certain individuals who begin work on or before December 31, 2025.
The other groups include certain veterans and recipients of various kinds of public assistance, among others. Specifically, the 10 groups are:
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients,
- Unemployed veterans, including disabled veterans,
- Formerly incarcerated individuals,
- Designated community residents living in Empowerment Zones or Rural Renewal Counties,
- Vocational rehabilitation referrals,
- Summer youth employees living in Empowerment Zones,
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients,
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients,
- Long-term family assistance recipients and
- Long-term unemployment recipients.
Qualifying for the credit
To qualify for the credit, an employer must first request certification by submitting IRS Form 8850, Pre-screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Credit, to their state workforce agency (SWA). It must be submitted to the SWA within 28 days after the eligible worker begins work. Employers should not submit Form 8850 to the IRS.
Claiming the credit
Eligible businesses then claim the WOTC on their federal income tax return. It is generally based on wages paid to eligible workers during the first year of employment. This is a one-time credit for each new hire and an employer cannot claim the WOTC for employees who are rehired.
The credit is first figured on Form 5884, Work Opportunity Credit, and then claimed on Form 3800, General Business Credit.
