Small Business Health Care Tax Credit – Deadline today!

Small business owners: it is not too late to claim the Affordable Care Act’s Small Business Health Care Tax Credit! For those of you who are small business owners, this tax credit is available for your own business. The filing deadline for many small businesses has already passed, but qualifying employers that provided group health insurance in 2010 can still claim this significant assistance on 2010 tax returns:

• Small businesses that have yet to file – for example because they took advantage of the automatic extension – can claim the credit on their 1040 series returns by today, Monday, October 17.
• Small businesses that have already filed and want to claim the credit can amend their returns using Form 1120X for corporations or Form 1040X for others, including individual sole proprietors.
• Eligible tax-exempt organizations can claim the credit on Form 990-T.
• Small businesses without taxable income to offset should remember that the credit is part of the general business credit for Tax Year 2010, meaning they may be eligible to carry back the credit for five years or forward for 20 years.

The credit is worth up to 35% of the health insurance premium costs a small business incurred for insuring its employees in 2010. Eligible small businesses that do not yet provide insurance can start doing so to claim the credit for 2011 forward.

The credit remains available for several years, so small employers should check each year to see if they are eligible.

More information is available on the IRS website at:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=223666,00.html

–JK