According to a recent 2022 Care.com survey, 59% of parents are concerned about childcare costs with parents claiming 20% of their household income is paid to their provider.
But BASE® is here to help. So many know about being able to pay for their eligible health care expenses on a pre-tax basis with the Flexible Spending Account (FSA), but there is another tax-advantaged account that can help save money on childcare.
As many working parents know, dependent care is expensive. No matter the qualifying expense, whether its daycare, before or after school care, day camps, elder care, or care for a disabled spouse or dependent, it can be a significant expense.
Dependent Care Assistance Plan (DCAP) is an employee benefit that helps employees pay for the care of their qualifying dependent(s) so that the employee can work, look for work, or attend school full time.
The BASE® DCAP is a pre-tax benefit that provides some additional financial assistance to allow employees to take care of their family. Employees can contribute up to the annual maximum limit, $5,000, to pay for their qualified DCAP expenses.
The primary benefits of the DCAP for employees are peace of mind knowing they are establishing funds to help pay for their cost of dependent care and an increase in take-home pay due to funds being transferred on a pre-tax basis, therefore lowering taxable wages. For employers, they have an enhanced benefits package that helps to recruit and retain employees and employees increase take-home pay by setting aside dollars pre-tax to pay for dependent care.
For more information on the BASE® Dependent Care Assistance Plan (DCAP), contact BASE® at 888.386.9680 or visit www.BASEonline.com.
Providing employer-sponsored benefits is a great way to attract and retain talent, but it can also present risks for employers who don’t have help managing their plans or understand what is required with them to stay in compliance. The Form 5500 Series can be another one of those challenges that employers, with 100 or more employees, face.
Filing reports regarding employer-sponsored health and welfare benefit plans are an essential task to every company, but what’s the point of the Form 5500?
The Form 5500 is documentation that is designed to satisfy the annual reporting requirements under ERISA and the IRS. The Form 5500 provides the government with key details about an employer’s health and welfare plan(s).
And with the help of the BASE® 5500 Solver, an employer can effectively prepare and file the Form 5500 electronically. This comprehensive compliance solution generates the necessary compliant 5500 documents. This innovative solution will help minimize the plan-related workload and report the important information regarding the health and welfare benefit plans to keep a business in compliance.
The point is… filing Form 5500 is required if a business has employee benefit plans, and not complying comes with a cost. The penalties for violating Form 5500 filing requirements are not only hefty but are adjusted each year for inflation. For 2023, the price increased from $2,400 to $2,586 per day the filing is late. Aside from late penalties, fines can be imposed for inaccuracies in form submissions, which is why business owners look to BASE® to guide them through the Form 5500 filing process.
Alicia Penton, a BASE® Sales Representative, recently enrolled a new client on the east coast who had several health benefit offerings. They recently contracted with an HR consulting company and had them looking over their benefit plans. Their medical and dental insurance increased to 120 participants in 2021, but no one knew that they had to file the Form 5500. The company reached out to Alicia, and we were able to help them file 2021 and 2022 filings, guiding them through the DOL Delinquent Filers Voluntary Compliance Program. Their fines were capped to a small, manageable amount vs. the potential thousands and thousands in fines for not filing.
For more information on the BASE® 5500 Solver, contact BASE® at 888.386.9680 or visit www.BASEonline.com.
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