Trump may not have signed it into law yet, but the final tax bill carries not just drastic changes to the tax code but also a number of provisions that affect employers—and employees.
An HRDive report says that among the changes are the repeal of some business deductions, such as some parking and transportation benefits and some entertainment expenses; however, they businesses did gain a tax credit for paying workers while they're out on Family and Medical Leave Act leave, according to an analysis by Willis Towers Watson.
Employees don’t fare so well, losing not only employer-provided bike commuter benefits and relocation assistance, but also the deductibility of settlements related to sexual harassment or sexual abuse, which won’t be deductible if they are subject to a nondisclosure agreement.
The report cites an e-mail from D. Finn Pressly, an employee benefits partner at McDermott Will & Emery, saying, “Dependent care flexible spending accounts survived the tax reform process unscathed, to the relief of many working parents,”, pointing out that the House had initially proposed an aggressive plan that would have eliminated these programs.
The bill also repeals the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate in 2019, Pressly adds, but that's unlikely to trigger significant changes to employer-sponsored healthcare plans. Some employees may economize by dropping coverage, so “[e]mployers should be sure that their communications emphasize that employees who drop coverage will not be allowed back into the plan until the next open enrollment window unless they experience a qualifying mid-year election change event (such as a birth or marriage).”
The final bill also, according to the WTW analysis, “[i]ncludes a modified provision which will prohibit the use of recharacterization to unwind Roth IRA conversions,” will repeal the tax exclusion from gross income for qualified moving expenses after 2017 and temporarily reduces the threshold for deducting qualified medical expenses to 7.5 percent of income, instead of 10 percent, for 2017 and 2018.
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