Trust BASE
Monday, February 20, 2012
This weekend my husband and I gathered up all of our tax information to give to our accountant, who happens to be my dad. This will most likely be my dad’s last year working before he retires, and I have been very lucky to have him take care of preparing and filing our taxes every year. I just hand him our information and in a few short days, I know what my refund will be and when it’ll show up in our account. And that wraps up my complete knowledge of how our taxes are filed!
I’m excited for my dad to retire; however, I am a little leery of having anyone else handle our taxes. Am I going to have to be a lot more organized next year, will I actually have to have a meeting with an accountant face-to-face, and do I have to track anything differently or explain anything to a new accountant? How much am I going to have to pay someone to do this for me in the future? (I’m sure I’m getting a nice reduced rate from my dad now…)
There is a comfort in having someone you trust take care of an annual task like income taxes every year. I have no doubt that I am getting all the deductions possible and that my taxes are filed with all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed.
I’m proud to say that I also work for a company that is happy to help you deduct your medical expenses through your small business with very little effort involved on your part. Our clients spend 5-12 hours per year to track and submit their expenses to BASE. Once you’ve submitted your expenses, we’ll do all the work- producing a summary report for you to take in to your accountant during your tax appointment. Our customers save an average of $4000 a year for their small business with the BASE® HRA in place. A few hours of work for $4000 in tax savings? Wow.
Call BASE today to learn how you can trust us to help your small business save on taxes. You’ll be glad you did.
Ann Greenslade
BASE® - Director Internal/External Customer Care
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Do Employees Really Understand Benefit Options?
Friday, February 10, 2012
Before I started at BASE® I really had no idea how a Flexible Spending Account worked. I knew we had a flex account through my husband’s employer, but I didn’t know much about it. I would turn in my medical receipts and get a check and thought… “ok??” I really didn’t bother learning about it.
Well, I can now say that has all changed. I have learned how my flex account works and how this pre-tax benefit is actually increasing my take-home pay. I can’t believe I didn’t take advantage of the maximum amount allowed sooner. Education really is key to helping employees, like myself, maximize their health benefits and to support employee engagement.
With 5 kids, our medical bills can add up really fast. This year we opted for the maximum allowed and I can’t believe how much money we will save over the course of this year. To be able to pay for our medical bills on a pre-tax basis is pretty amazing. Maybe we will be able to go on a vacation this year with how much we are saving!
I am only one person out of the millions (some 33 million according to In Health Law, Rx for Trouble, Wall Street Journal) of people who have the opportunity to save by participating in a 125 FSA, and I can only imagine how many people think of an FSA like I had before I started at BASE®.
As an employer, BASE® hopes that you will take the time to discuss sponsoring a BASE® 125 Cafeteria Plan. Not only does BASE provide benefit savings for both the employer and employee, but we can walk you through everything and provide the support you need to engage your employees in our tax advantaged benefit plans. Learn more today – the savings and education are worth it!
Amy Sutton
BASE® – Group Benefit Specialist
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What Would A Penny A Day Do For You?
Monday, January 16, 2012
It is that time of year that everyone starts the New Year with the ever-famous New Year’s Resolution. That being said, I will admit that I, like so many others, have added being healthier to my 2012 to-do. In looking for new ways to do this, I came across an article that discussed reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. Again, like many others, I am guilty of having an occasional soda that is full of sugar, and the very article I came across discussed the ill effects of such consumption. It also highlighted something that comes up in conversation on a daily basis, at least in our office, which is health care.
The "Soda Tax: What Can a Penny Do?” article made me think about how many times I may have purchased a sugar laden beverage, and how many pennies that might equate to. After adding up all those pennies, I then got to thinking about what I could have bought with those pennies. Knowing that I don’t drink a sweetened beverage every day it doesn’t come out to be $365, but it still comes out to be the amount of a few nicer items that I passed on purchasing because I thought it wasn’t worth the expense.
As a self-employed business owner, I ask you to think of how many pennies that would equal to you and what you may have passed up. Often times we encounter self-employed business owners that would rather save their pennies than invest in the BASE® HRA. If they only sat and thought of the pennies that could be saved for making an investment that doesn’t even cost a penny a day. They could be saving an average of $3,900 in tax savings each year – that’s a lot of pennies!
So what does a penny mean to you when you look at it over the course of 365 days? I hope if you are a self-employed individual you will start thinking about that sweetened beverage you might purchase. Just imagine it being taxed and imagine that one penny being added every time you purchased that beverage. I think you would be able to see the value of investing less than a penny a day on something that will save you on out-of-pocket medical expenses and health insurance premiums in the long run. Contact BASE® today to see how many pennies you could be saving with the BASE® HRA.
Anne Case
BASE® - Director of Marketing
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