VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Adam Verner]

Hey everyone, thought I'd share something I just found out about and am taking advantage of. I've gotten great info from previous posts on health insurance for our unique niche in past threads, but I don't think anyone has mentioned an HRA, or Health Reimbursement Account.

In a nutshell, it operates alongside your standard health insurance or HSA (even the union insurance I believe). It's meant to help small business owners, like us. By enrolling, you are allowed to deduct 100% of your medical expenses for you or the entire family. Normally, you can't start deducting health expenses until you hit 10% of your AGI (adjusted gross income). So if you have an AGI of $50K, you can't deduct anything under $5K, only after you spend more than that. Your monthly premiums are also deductible! It was recommended by my health adviser, and after researching it it seems to make sense for my family (YMMV).

You only need to pay a company to "mange" the HRA, around $200-$300 a year. So if you're spending enough in health expenses, you come out ahead tax-wise. It's slightly easier to do it if you're an S-Corp, like I am, but can still be done as a sole proprietorship.

Anywho, that's the medium sized nutshell. My adviser recommended BASE to manage it, and they are super helpful and responsive:
http://www.baseonline.com/
The employee that worked with me even said they could set up a webinar if enough folks are interested in finding out more.
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Adam
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Natural Voice
adamverner.com
adamverner.com/blog
twitter.com/adam_verner
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[Jeffrey Kafer]

If you have an HSA, this is redundant, because all contributions into the HSA are tax deductible and then used to pay for health care expenses.
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[Adam Verner]

Not quite redundant, as I understand it. You can have an HRA alongside an HSA, you just claim things differently. On average you'd save 35% with an HRA as opposed to 25% with an HSA.

In that instance, I think the value comes from the other things you can deduct. ALL your premiums for the year for the whole family, supplemental insurance premiums, even mileage to and from doctors/hospitals are deductible.

I'll let ya know how it turns out at the end of this year
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Adam
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Natural Voice
adamverner.com
adamverner.com/blog
twitter.com/adam_verner
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