Report: 85% of Ohio firms can get tax credit

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Many of the state’s smallest businesses could receive tax credits this year to help pay for employee health care, according to a report released by small-business and consumer-health advocacy groups.

The report, issued Wednesday by Families USA and Small Business Majority, states that more than 85 percent of Ohio businesses with fewer than 25 employees will be eligible for a tax-credit program that begins this year.

The tax credit, part of the new health-care-reform legislation, will pay up to 35 percent of employee health-care costs. Nonprofit firms are eligible for up to 25 percent.

Businesses that employ 10 or fewer workers earning an average wage of less than $25,000, will qualify for the maximum 35 percent. The credit decreases on a sliding scale.

The eligibility limits include part-time workers, with two half-time employees counting as a full-time worker.

When the health-care legislation’s mandated state insurance exchanges take effect in 2014, small- business employers will be eligible for tax credits of up to 50 percent — 35 percent for nonprofits — of employee health-coverage costs.

“Employers have been willing to provide health coverage for their employees, but economies of scale have made this almost impossible for many small businesses,” Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA said in a press release. “Starting this year, they will have access to a new tax credit to help provide this essential benefit.”