2014 Legislative Session Drawing to a Close -- Significant Impacts for Small Business

Date: April 30, 2014

Employer Assessment
NFIB/VT has been a long opponent to the employer assessment (Catamount
Assessment).
  The
Senate Finance Committee has advanced H.884 (Misc. Tax Bill) which includes a
significant increase in the employer health care assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

Changes to the employer health
care assessment include:

 

 

·
Eliminates the 4 employee or fewer exemption.

 

 

·
Increases the assessment on employers (on top of the $2-3,000
federal assessment per employee for employers with 50 or more):

 

 

o
1 to 49 employees to $119.12/employee per quarter

 

 

o
50-249 to $182.50/employee per quarter

 

 

o
250+ employees to $273.75/employee per quarter

 

 

·
Raises $2 million by requires employers who offer insurance to
obtain personal information from employees who don’t take the coverage, by
asking if they are covered by Medicaid.

 

 

 

 

 

NFIB/VT urges you to contact
your Senator(s) and urge them to oppose the increased employer assessments.  Call the State House at 800-322-5616
to leave a message.

 

 

 

 

 

Minimum Wage – the House of
Representatives passed an increase to $10.10 effective Jan. 1, 2015, and the
Senate has passed an increase over the next four years to $10.50 (with training wage or expansion of the student exemption
provisions)
.  A Committee of
Conference will be negotiating a final bill.

 

 

 

 

 

NFIB/VT urges you to contact
your Senator(s) and
tell
them how a minimum wage increase will impact your business and tell them that a
$30 million additional cost to doing business in Vermont is too much, that
current law is adequate in an economy that is growing at less than one percent.
 Call the State House
at 800-322-5616 to leave a message.

 

 

 

 

 

Property Tax Increase – the
residential property tax increase will increase by as much as 4.5-cents/$100 of
value and the non-residential/commercial rate is expected to increase by as
much as 7.5-cents/$100.  Again, these
increases are simply not sustainable.

 

 

 

 

 

Fiscal State of the State
the legislature is posed to pass increased spending of nearly 5%.  Small business has had to make tough
decisions and adjust their budgets.
Increased spending beyond 2-3% is simply not sustainable.

 

 

Related Content: Small Business News | Vermont

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