Hale Stewart, Captive Insurance

I thought it would be inappropriate to continue my “Hurricane Harvey and Captive Insurance” series while Florida was dealing with Hurricane Irma. But now that the worst is over, I wanted to continue my train of thought. Last week, I showed that controlling the claims process is an incredible advantage to owning a captive. This is especially beneficial during a large catastrophe because your captive won’t be flooded with non-parent company claims, slowing down the settlement process. Read More

Along with the fun of summer also comes the dread of potential natural disasters. Summer time is the beginning of hurricane season beginning in June and ending in November. While tornadoes can pop up anytime, there seems to be more occurrences during summer than other times of the year. In some areas of the country, summer is also the rainy season, so flooding can occur. Read More

Grant Gilmour

What are the payroll tax rates changes for 2017 for withholdings?Payroll tax rates change every year and it is important for you to know the correct rates when preparing payroll remittances.

Please visit our payroll tax post for more figures and for updated rates for 2017 with 2016 comparison. Or read the entire chart below.

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Grant Gilmour

The WCB manages workplace insurance for employers and workers. In Canada, each province and territory has its own WCB that is a statutory corporation created by the provincial government.

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If you are one of the many individuals or families who purchase their health insurance through the federal or a state government health insurance marketplace and are receiving an advance premium tax credit (subsidy of premium available to those with low to moderate income) to help you pay the cost of that insurance, you should make sure you report changes in family income and family size, as they occur, to the marketplace through which you purchased your insurance.

Changes in either family income or family size can have a significant impact on the amount of the advance premium tax credit (APTC) to which you are entitled. Reporting the changes as they occur allows the marketplace to adjust the APTC to the amount to which you are entitled. Read More

Article Highlights:

• Flat dollar amount penalty
• Percentage of income penalty
• Household income
• Modified adjusted gross income
• Tax filing threshold

The penalty for not having minimum essential health insurance for yourself and other members of your tax family takes a substantial jump in 2015. For 2014, the penalty was the greater of the flat dollar amount ($95 for each adult plus $47.50 for each child under Read More

Today, I want to turn to the Harper Test, which states that a captive must comply with the following three factors:

(1) whether the arrangement involves the existence of an “insurance risk”;

(2) whether there was both risk shifting and risk distribution; and

(3) whether the arrangement was for “insurance” in its commonly accepted sense.

I’ve already discussed the idea of risk shifting and risk distribution. For the next few posts, I want to focus on factors 1 and 3, starting with one, that the arrangement involves the existence of an “insurance risk.” Read More