Posts Tagged ‘spending’’
Consumer Spending by Older Americans by Patrick Purcell, (Paperback), book, New
 | US $58.92 End Date: Sunday May-27-2012 21:19:37 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $58.92 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
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Deloitte Consumer Spending Index Moves Upward as the Pace of Declining Home … – MarketWatch (press release)
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Deloitte Consumer Spending Index Moves Upward as the Pace of Declining Home …
MarketWatch (press release) Simultaneously, the steady decline in jobless claims has reversed. The Index, which comprises four components — tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages and real home prices — rose to 2.07 from an upwardly revised reading of 1.88 the … |
 Global Economic Intersection |
Employment: Has Been Improving but Outlook Weakening
Global Economic Intersection by Lee Adler, The Wall Street Examiner While the mainstream media was reporting that jobless claims were steady last week, the real picture was more nuanced. The media reports only the seasonally smoothed number, which can obscure what's really going … |
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Deloitte Consumer Spending Index Moves Upward as the Pace of Declining Home … – MarketWatch (press release)
|
Deloitte Consumer Spending Index Moves Upward as the Pace of Declining Home …
MarketWatch (press release) Simultaneously, the steady decline in jobless claims has reversed. The Index, which comprises four components — tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages and real home prices — rose to 2.07 from an upwardly revised reading of 1.88 the … |
Global Economic Intersection |
Employment: Has Been Improving but Outlook Weakening
Global Economic Intersection by Lee Adler, The Wall Street Examiner While the mainstream media was reporting that jobless claims were steady last week, the real picture was more nuanced. The media reports only the seasonally smoothed number, which can obscure what's really going … |
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Zane Benefits Publishes History of Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
May 20th, 2012 | 
Author:
(PRWEB) May 18, 2012
Zane Benefits, which provides small businesses with comprehensive and flexible alternatives to traditional group health insurance, this week published a new article on the history of Flexible Spending Accounts. The article teaches the history of the program, which 24 million employers offer.
In the late 1960s, as inflation and other factors increased the cost of employer-sponsored health benefits, employers began instituting annual deductibles and coinsurance on their health benefits plans, and/or excluding coverage for certain medical items that were legally allowed to be covered by IRS regulations (e.g. vision, dental, alternative medicine). Excluding these medical expenses effectively almost doubled the employee cost for these items on an after-tax basis.
Flexible Spending Accounts were Created in the 1970s
To respond to this dilemma, in the 1970s the IRS created Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) to allow employees to pay pre-tax dollars for medical expenses and dependent (child) care expenses not covered by their employer-sponsored health plan. With a Medical FSA, employees tell their employer they wish to forego receiving a certain amount of their taxable gross wages each year in return for an equivalent size non-taxable FSA annual allowance to pay for out-of-pocket qualified medical expenses.
If an employer pays for a $ 100 medical item for an employee it costs the employer $ 100. The employer would have to pay the employee up to $ 200 in gross pre-tax wages in order for the employee to have $ 100 left over after FICA/FUTA and federal, state and local income taxes (e.g. 50% combined tax bracket) to pay for the same $ 100 item himself. A $ 100 health benefit paid by an employer is worth up to $ 200 (100% more) in gross pre-tax wages to an employee. See Why Do Employers Offer Health Insurance.
There are three Types of Flexible Spending Accounts
There are three types of FSAs: Health, Dependent Care, and Adoption. The FSA allowance for a Health FSA must be an annual allowance given on the first day of the plan year, even though the employee will not have foregone the equivalent amount in salary reduction until the last day of the plan year. In contrast, with a Dependent Care FSA, employees can receive benefits only up to the then-current amount of pre-tax salary that has been withheld from their payroll (e.g. $ 200/month).
Health Flexible Spending Accounts
With a Health FSA, employees direct their employer to lower their pre-tax wages next year by $ 200/month, and the employee, on the first day of the next plan year, receives a $ 2,400 FSA allowance for medical expenses. The employee must be given access to the full $ 2,400 on the first day of the plan year. If an employee spends the full $ 2,400 in the first month and quits, the employer is not allowed to recover the unpaid balance.
Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Dependent Care FSAs are similar to a Health FSA that can only be used for dependent care expenses, except that employers may not allow employees access to any FSA funds that have not been already contributed through payroll deduction.
Depending on their individual income tax bracket, employees save a combined 18-50 percent federal, state, and local income and wage taxes on medical expenses funded through an FSA. Equally important, employees receive the intangible benefits of having funds for anticipated out-of-pocket medical expenses available through forced payroll savings.
Flexible Spending Accounts Reduce FICA
Employers also save money with FSAs by not paying wage taxes on FSA contributions. Each $ 100,000 of salary foregone by employees in favor of FSA contributions saves an employer $ 7,650 (7.65%) in FICA and FUTA taxes.
Today, 24 Million Employers Offer Flexible Spending Accounts. Employers have generally embraced FSAs. According to a 2005 survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, in 2005:
(1) 80 percent of employers with 500 or more employees offered FSAs;
(2) 26 percent of employers with 10 or more employees offered a health care FSA, 35 percent of eligible employees were participating, and the average annual FSA employee contribution was $ 1,235/year; and
(3) 27 percent of employers with 10 or more employees offered a dependent care FSA, 14 percent of eligible employees were participating, and the average annual FSA employee contribution was $ 2,630/year.
There are approximately 24 million Health and Dependent Care FSAs.
Health Care Reform Limits Flexible Spending Accounts
The health care reform bill creates the following restrictions on the use of flexible spending accounts (FSAs):
Beginning in 2011, non-prescribed over-the-counter drugs will no longer be qualified medical expenses
Beginning in 2013, employee contributions to FSAs through salary reduction will be limited to $ 2,500 per year and adjusted in subsequent years based on inflation
Some Employees and Employers Dislike Flexible Spending Accounts
Despite their popularity, some employees and employers may dislike Flexible Spending Accounts for several reasons:
Employees must specify in advance during the prior plan year how much money to take out of their pre-tax wages for their FSA (e.g. $ 100/month or $ 1,200/year). The employee loses 100% of any balance they do not spend in the subsequent plan year (or within the grace period following the plan year).
Employers must make available to employees the full annual Health FSA amount (e.g. $ 1,200/year) on the first day of the plan year (e.g. January 1). This Uniform Coverage Rule means that an employee has access to the full annual FSA amount on January 1 even if an employee hasnt yet funded any of their payroll contribution. If an employee quits on January 2 after submitting and being reimbursed for a $ 4,800 claim, the employee does not have to repay such pre-funded FSA reimbursements after termination. (The Uniform Coverage Rule applies only to Health FSAs and not to dependent care FSAs.)
FSAs encourage frivolous end-of-year use it or lose it spending, and dont reward consumers for wellness behavior by allowing them to save what they dont spend today for their future medical expenses.
Tax-sensitive employees desiring FSAs are often the same employees wanting Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). However, FSAs are not generally compatible with HSAs. Employees with an FSA cannot make contributions to a Health Savings Account (HSA) unless their FSA has an HSA-Compatible deductible (i.e. “post-deductible” FSA), or unless their FSA covers a limited number of items such as dental, vision, and preventative care allowed under HSA rules for compatible high deductible coverage (i.e. “limited purpose” FSA). Most existing FSA administration platforms cannot handle deductibles and/or differentiate between different categories of medical expenses to comply with HSA qualification rules.
There is a low likelihood of the IRS changing (1) and (4) above because a major tenet of FSAs (and Section 125 Cafeteria Plans) is that they cannot be used to defer the recognition of employee taxable income. Allowing employees to roll forward FSA balances would greatly increase their popularity, encourage tax abuse and have a significant revenue impact on the U.S. Treasury.
The IRS or Congress will also probably not change (2) above (Uniform Coverage Rule) because the IRS believes that in order to fall within the parameters of Code sections 106 and 105(b) (which allows FSA contributions to a health FSA and reimbursements from a health FSA to be tax-free), the FSA must operate like insurance, with both the employer and the employee bearing some risk.
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About Zane Benefits, Inc.
Zane Benefits, Inc, a software company, helps insurance brokers, accountants, and employers take adva
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Getting and Spending: European and American Consumer Societies in the 20th Cen..
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Patterns in consumers spending
Question by Paul I: Patterns in consumers spending
“What factors influence spending”
“Factors that may change spending habbits.”
“Market where money is spent continuously”
“The effect spending may have on the economy.”
Can someone please answer the patterns and consumers spending, common influences consumers have in there spending and if there was a market where money is spnet more than another.
Answer from 200-300 words.
PLEASE HELP GUYS! THANKS.
Best answer:
Answer by Gooddad
I dont have time for 200 words, however; Inflation, interest rates, unemployment, deflation, depression (not lately), government policy, monetary policy, fiscal policy and consumer preference. These are the main ones you can use as headings which apply basicallly to all the questions you ask. International trade and balance of payments deficitts can also be included. There are also unforseen factors such as war, flood, famine, draught, shortages in skilled labour etc
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
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Does more govt spending mean less money in consumers pockets?
Question by ObamaBot THX-1138: Does more govt spending mean less money in consumers pockets?
Someone responded to a question with that statement.
But don’t government employees spend money?
Best answer:
Answer by Paul Jackson
No, because many business both large and small are employed by the government via government contracts. The idea that all government spending goes to government employees is false.
Give your answer to this question below!
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Do you think that as Obama talks about excessive gov spending that it can lead to a boost in consumer …?
Question by blu: Do you think that as Obama talks about excessive gov spending that it can lead to a boost in consumer …?
… confidence and in return lead to an abatement in economic turmoil?
Best answer:
Answer by mr_crankypants
I think that any talk of reigning in governemnt spending (which of course now is going to a ton of unemployed people helping them pay for healthcare, food, and living expenses) would lead to a decrease in consumer confidence and could prolong the recession.
Many more mortgages will go bad if Rebuplicans get what they want and reign in payments to Medicaid, Unemployment, and COBRA. Many recipeients would probably end up using their mortgage payments for these necessities and defaulting, causing a second wave of forclosures and a probable double-dip.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
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Changes in disposable income are likely to change consumption spending by _____ because _______?
Question by : Changes in disposable income are likely to change consumption spending by _____ because _______?
A. more than the change in income; savings will also be changed
B. the full change in income; there is nothing else to do with the income
C. less than the change in income; savings will also be changed
D. less than the change in income; taxes will rise
E. very little, if at all; consumers spend all their income
Best answer:
Answer by Anjaree
The answer is C. It’s because that MPC is less than 1.
Give your answer to this question below!
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Tags: because, change, Changes, Consumption, Disposable, income, likely, spending', _____, _______ | 
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Will the sponsors cut back on spending for naming rights & commercials with NBA/NFL/MLB, etc?
Question by A57Moon- speechless in SandyEggo: Will the sponsors cut back on spending for naming rights & commercials with NBA/NFL/MLB, etc?
With salary renegotiation’s & cutbacks, spending limits in other industries and consumer spending vastly diminished…how feasible is it to see spending cutbacks by Sponsors, redoing naming Rights agreements, cut backs in player salaries….( we KNOW we wont see any effects with owners..they’ll get theirs in most cases)
Best answer:
Answer by WestCoastin4Life
I doubt we will see any of those cuts anytime soon, TV money is always big and profitable…
What do you think? Answer below!
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Tags: back, Commercials, naming, NBA/NFL/MLB, Rights, spending', sponsors, will, with |
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