What’s a Part 125 Plan?

This text has been up to date to incorporate 2023 info.

Providing aggressive advantages attracts, satisfies, and retains high expertise. Advantages embrace the whole lot from retirement plans to medical health insurance protection. If you dive into totally different small enterprise worker advantages, you may contemplate a bit 125 plan.

However, what’s a bit 125 plan? Is it a cafeteria plan? Are part 125 plans pre-tax medical health insurance? Hold studying to search out out the solutions to those questions and extra.

What’s a bit 125 plan?

So, what’s part 125? Part 125 is a written plan that lets staff select between two or extra advantages, together with certified advantages (e.g., medical health insurance) and money. Staff obtain advantages as pre-tax deductions. Staff, their spouses, and their dependents can all profit from part 125 plans.

What’s a cafeteria plan? Properly, consider a 125 plan like a cafeteria. In a cafeteria, people can decide the meals they need from the choice provided. Equally, staff can decide the advantages they need in a bit 125 plan. For this reason a bit 125 profit plan can also be known as a cafeteria plan.

How do you calculate taxes with part 125 plans?

Once more, a bit 125 plan offers pre-tax advantages to staff. With pre-tax advantages, you deduct the worker’s contribution earlier than withholding taxes, decreasing their taxable earnings. Sometimes with pre-tax deductions, the worker pays much less in federal earnings and FICA (Social Safety and Medicare) taxes. Some states additionally permit a bit 125 plan to scale back the quantity an worker owes in state earnings taxes. 

As a result of part 125 plans are pre-tax, in addition they come out earlier than federal unemployment tax (FUTA), decreasing your employer FUTA legal responsibility per paycheck. The tax stays 6% (or 0.6% when you obtain the credit score) on the primary $7,000 of an worker’s wages. Nevertheless, the pre-tax deduction reduces the taxability of every verify. So, you pay much less FUTA tax per verify than you’d with no part 125 plan. 

In some states, you additionally calculate state unemployment tax (SUTA) after the part 125 plan, which reduces your employer SUTA tax legal responsibility per verify. 

Who can take part in a bit 125 plan?

Now that you recognize what a cafeteria plan is, let’s have a look at who can take part in or buy a bit 125 plan. 

Any employer with staff can sponsor a cafeteria plan, together with:

However, not everybody who performs work for the enterprise can take part within the plan. Nonemployees can not enroll in a bit 125 plan, together with:

What are part 125 deductions?

You need to observe part 125 tips when including advantages to your cafeteria plan. The IRS has particular guidelines for which advantages you possibly can embrace in a bit 125 plan. IRS Publication 15-B particulars which advantages they do and don’t permit in cafeteria plans. 

Usually, you can not embrace a profit that defers an worker’s pay. Nevertheless, you possibly can embrace sure forms of 401(ok) plans and life insurance coverage maintained by instructional establishments.

Advantages included in part 125

Listed here are the qualifying advantages you possibly can embrace in your part 125 cafeteria plan doc:

One other profit you possibly can embrace in your cafeteria plan is a versatile spending account (FSA). Nevertheless, there’s a restrict on these contributions. Staff can solely contribute as much as $3,850 to an FSA (2023), or it’s not thought-about a cafeteria plan.

Advantages excluded from part 125

So, what advantages are not included in a cafeteria plan? These are the advantages you can not embrace in your IRS part 125 plan:

• Archer MSAs
• Athletic services
• De minimis (minimal) advantages
• Instructional help
• Worker reductions
• Employer-provided cell telephones
• Lodging on your online business premises
• Meals
• Transferring expense reimbursements
• No-additional-cost providers
• Retirement planning providers
• Transportation (commuting) advantages
• Tuition discount
• Working situation advantages

Advantages not included in a bit 125 cafeteria plan sometimes don’t cut back the tax legal responsibility for workers or employers. As a substitute, tax these deductions per the IRS directions for the particular sort of profit you supply. 

Plans favoring staff

In case your plan favors extremely compensated or key staff concerning their eligibility to take part, you could embrace the worth of the advantages they might have chosen of their wages.

A extremely compensated worker is an officer or shareholder proudly owning greater than 5% of the voting energy. If somebody meets these descriptions, their partner or dependents are additionally thought-about extremely compensated.

A key worker is an officer who earns an annual pay of greater than $215,000 or an worker who’s both a 5% proprietor or a 1% proprietor who earns greater than $150,000 (2023). If greater than 25% of the nontaxable advantages you present for all staff go towards key staff, it favors them.

Easy cafeteria plans

Some companies can supply a easy cafeteria plan to their staff. With a easy cafeteria plan, you don’t want to fret about favoring extremely compensated or key staff. As a substitute, you could contribute advantages on behalf of every worker.

To supply a easy cafeteria plan, you need to qualify. In case you employed a median of 100 or fewer staff throughout both of the 2 earlier years or when you anticipate to make use of a median of 100 or fewer staff within the present 12 months, you’re eligible.

Staff who labored not less than 1,000 hours within the earlier plan 12 months are eligible. If you’d like, you possibly can exclude staff who:

• Are underneath the age of 21
• Have labored for you for lower than one 12 months
• Are lined underneath a collective bargaining settlement 
• Are nonresident aliens who’re paid outdoors the US

For workers included underneath your easy cafeteria plan, you could make the identical contributions for every employee. You may select from offering:

• No less than 2% of their compensation for the plan 12 months OR
• No less than 6% of their compensation for the plan 12 months or twice the quantity of wage discount contributions, whichever is much less

For extra info on easy cafeteria plans, consult with Publication 15-B or contact the IRS.

Creating your part 125

You need to have a written part 125 cafeteria plan doc earlier than taking out pre-tax deductions. In any other case, the IRS might imagine you’re not withholding sufficient taxes.

Your written plan should listing and describe all the advantages you supply. Additionally, element the contribution limits for every profit, participation guidelines, employer contributions, the plan 12 months, and another mandatory info.

For assist writing your cafeteria plan, flip to an expert, like a enterprise lawyer. They might help guarantee your part 125 plan is correct, authorized, and comprehensible.

This text has been up to date from its unique publication date of July 3, 2012.

This isn’t meant as authorized recommendation; for extra info, please click on right here.