Massachusetts now joins California, New York and Washington, D.C. as the only states to have both a $15 minimum wage and mandatory paid family and medical leave. It also eliminates some mandatory overtime rules, and gradually phases in over 5 years. If you are a Massachusetts-based employer or have employees there, this is a must read. Click here.
From Employee Benefit Advisor 6/14/18. For full story, click here:
The Family and Medical Leave Act already requires covered employers to allow eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. In an effort to encourage employers to offer paid leave, the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018 sweetened the deal by promising a tax credit to employers, starting in 2018, on the wages that they pay to eligible employees during family and medical leave. However, there are certain restrictions in the law which minimizes its benefit to employers.
The types of leave which qualify for the tax credit are taken from the FMLA include:
· Birth of the employee’s child
· Placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care
· Care of a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition
· A serious health condition which prevents the employee from performing the functions of their position
· A spouse, child, or parent on covered, active duty in the Armed Forces
· Care for a service member who is the employee’s spouse, child, or next-of-kin
The paid leave, for tax credit purposes, must be due to taking an FMLA leave. In other words, pay during the leave due to vacation, personal leave, or a medical leave is not considered for credit purposes.
If an employer provides a self-funded short-term disability benefit, for example, that wage replacement is disregarded. Similarly, any paid leave required under state or local law is disregarded for purposes of the federal tax credit.
Only paid leave amounts solely due to the taking of an FMLA leave will qualify. An example of paid leave eligible for the credit would be paid parental leave in the event of a new child — as long as the paid leave wasn’t paid due to the new mom’s disability or mandated under state or local law.
How an employer qualifies for the tax credit
The following requirements must be satisfied to claim the credit:
· The employer must have a written policy, allowing for at least two weeks of annual paid family and medical leave for full-time employees, or a prorated amount for part-time employees
· The employee must have been employed by the business for at least one year
· The employer must pay at least 50% of an employee’s normal wages while the employee is on leave
· For the prior year, the employee must not have earned more than 60% of the dollar threshold for being considered a highly compensated employee for 401(k) purposes.
Even employers not subject to FMLA may still qualify for the tax credit. In order to do so, these employers must provide paid family and medical leave in compliance with a written policy which includes assurances that the employer will not interfere with an employee’s right to claim paid leave under the policy or discriminate against an employee in connection with the employer’s paid leave policy.
How the tax credit works
The tax credit is calculated as a percentage of the wages paid to an employee while on family or medical leave. If the criteria are met, the employer may claim 12.5% of those wages paid as a federal tax credit for up to 12 weeks of paid leave per year.
Additionally, for every percentage-point increase in pay rate over 50% of the employee’s normal wages, the tax credit increases by 0.25%, with a maximum credit of 25% of wages paid during the leave.
Take a simplified example: Say an employee normally earns a wage of $1,000/week and the employer pays the employee $600/week for four weeks while on leave to care for a spouse with a serious health condition: 60% of normal wages would yield a 15% tax credit on those wages, which is a $360 credit for $2,400 in wages.
It is worth noting that employers must reduce their deduction for wages by the amount of the credit. Plus, any wages that are used in calculating another business tax credit cannot be used when calculating this credit.
Employers who already provide paid FMLA leave for their employees, or have already been considering it, may take advantage of this tax benefit with little added difficulty. On the other hand, employers may find the incentive to be too small to offset the expense of paid leave.
In any case, the provision is set to expire at the end of 2019. Unless Congress extends it, employers will only be able to take advantage of this benefit for two years.
The IRS has said that it will likely give more specific guidance on how the credit will work in the near future.