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A comment on Why Employee Benefits Will Become Irrelevant.

Re:Why Employee Benefits Will Become Irrelevant by Jtsummers on Wednesday April 29, 2015 @01:22PM (#9459948)
> All it really means is that instead of an employer paying $X on behalf of an employee for a certain benefit, the employer pays the employee that same dollar amount and allows him/her to use the dollars as desired toward their own selection of benefits, from retirement to health insurance and more.

This money is usually pre-tax. Let's say an office worker is making $80k/year + benefits and pays about 25% to taxes. If those benefits amount to $10k (feasible between 401k matching, insurance and other things) the employer needs to come up with an extra $3.33k to pay the employee to compensate for the tax owed on the extra income.

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Re:Why Employee Benefits Will Become Irrelevant by prostoalex on Wednesday April 29, 2015 @01:40PM (#9460101)
"If you paid your health insurance premiums with your own after-tax money, they’re deductible."

http://healthinsurance.about.com/od/savingmoneyonhealthcare/...

With a bunch of caveats, of course.

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Re:Why Employee Benefits Will Become Irrelevant by Jtsummers on Wednesday April 29, 2015 @01:45PM (#9460150)
Ah, thanks. This would still be an issue with some other benefits unless they also are tax deductible or made tax deductible for individuals. My 5% matching on my 401(k), in particular, would be an issue without increasing the tax deduction limits on 401(k)s.
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Re:Why Employee Benefits Will Become Irrelevant by prostoalex on Wednesday April 29, 2015 @01:53PM (#9460231)
It does make sense for the government to (a) allow for insurance premiums to be paid out of flexible spending accounts, (b) decouple pre-tax FSAs from employment and make them available to anybody.

Not sure why it's not part of the ACA, perhaps there are some unintended consequences (a) would cause.

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Re:Why Employee Benefits Will Become Irrelevant by nulltype on Wednesday April 29, 2015 @01:39PM (#9460090)
Could health care payments be tax deductible?
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