I have a small business with 3 employees. Prior to the ACA we had a group health insurance plan. We were switched into a new group plan as of January of this year. The plan was wretched. It was an extremely narrow network which was actually quite expensive. The plan was hated by one and all.
So I searched around for other group plans and found it to be difficult to sign up and also not the greatest bargain. I ultimately decided everybody would go to the individual market. We all signed up with a company in New York called Oscar and it's been quite good. Here's my problem. I am still paying for my employees health coverage. I want to get the benefit of the tax deduction. I can raise their salaries and claim the deduction that way, but that also triggers a lot of fica taxes. And it also raises the employees' income tax. I was curious if there was a way to give an employee a pre tax stipend or something of that sort.
As to the wage theft questions, (1)if I were to raise an employee's salary for the express purpose of purchasing health insurance is that potentially wage theft where I deduct the amount payable to the insurance company and then pay the insurance bill directly? (2)Is there a wage theft claim where a certain portion of the employee's wages must be used to purchase health insurance but the employee does not want insurance? (3) Can an employer say, I will give you a raise but only if you use it for health insurance?