Benefits for Your Workers
Meeting the payroll, week to week, is the best some businesses can hope for.
This is especially true for startups. However, if you find your business in a
more secure position, you may want to offer some benefits to your employees (and
to yourself). In fact, one of the many reasons that small business ownership is
so attractive is the opportunity to obtain tax-deductible benefits for the owner
and his or her family.
- Benefits
basics: if you are new to the benefits arena, your first stop should be
learning a little bit about the general rules about benefits.
- Time-off
benefits: there are certain time-off benefits that you may be required
to offer, such as time off to vote, jury duty leave, and military leave.
There are also other types of time off that you may choose to offer that are
not required by law, such as vacation, sick leave, and personal time off.
- Workers'
compensation: every state has enacted workers' compensation laws to
protect employees against loss of income and for medical payments due to a
work-related injury, accident, illness, or disease.
- Health
insurance: health insurance is a valuable benefit, but it can be
expensive for small groups. We'll show you how to find vendors, how to
negotiate contracts, and how to handle day-to-day administrative issues.
We'll also describe the basic health plan options available to you.
- Flexible
spending accounts: a relatively low-cost way to help employees pay for
their own health expenses, as well as childcare expenses, is to set up an
FSA plan that permits employees to contribute pre-tax pay to accounts that
are later used to reimburse eligible expenses.
- Disability
insurance: disability insurance can also be a valuable benefit. We'll
show you the difference between short-term policies and long-term policies,
and we'll explain how federal and state programs interact with these plans.
- Life
insurance: life insurance is a great benefit to provide because it
offers employees with a family some security at a fairly low cost. Check
here for information on the different types of life insurance you can
purchase and how to handle day-to-day administration.
- Retirement
plans: retirement benefits are a valuable benefit to offer to your
employees and to yourself. They can be costly and time-consuming to
administer, but there are a wealth of options to choose from that can be
financially advantageous for you, your business, and your employees.
- Miscellaneous
fringe benefits: this category includes all the other types of fringe
benefits you may choose to provide to your employees. In some cases, you can
deduct the cost of providing the benefits, but your employees will not have
to pay tax on them!
- Benefits
administration: we include an overview of some legal and technical
aspects you need to know about.