GUEST COLUMN: Health care tax credits huge boon to small businesses

With the economy still in a slump, small business owners like me are doing everything we can to keep our costs down. A particularly troublesome cost for my business is health insurance.

However, I recently learned there are tax credits in the new healthcare law specifically for small businesses that will help us pocket some extra cash.

In Michigan, 85.1 percent, or 126,300 small businesses were eligible for a credit in 2010; 39,600 small businesses qualified for the maximum tax credit that year.

Unfortunately, I saw a survey from Small Business Majority that said 57 percent of small business owners don't know about the credits. If more small employers took advantage of this opportunity to save money, there would be more cash circulating in our community.

Here's how these tax credits from the Affordable Care Act benefit my mom-and-pop downtown business.

Our business strategy depends on stable, well-informed employees for us to compete with large national box stores. A comprehensive health care insurance plan is the best way for us to attract and keep the good people we need, but our insurance costs have risen 300 percent in 10 years, and competition won't allow us to raise prices enough to cover them.

Under the Affordable Care Act, our store will receive a $15,000 tax credit. That's not all the money in the world, but it means a lot to us and costs the government little or nothing.

Here's how it worked for us. Last spring, when the tea leaves of commerce were hard to read, the tax credit gave me the confidence to hire a new full-time employee.

That employee is now paying taxes. That means thousands of dollars going into government coffers.

After a couple of months, our new person had the confidence to buy a $6,500 motorcycle that increased profits and tax revenue for the motorcycle shop. There's more. Continued...

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Another employee had been paying nearly $20,000 for his family insurance. Our tax credit gave me the confidence to encourage him to switch to our policy, which now saves that family more than $8,000 per year.

That money is going right into a new roof on the house and education for their kids.

From my perspective as a lifelong, small, downtown business owner, a relatively small health care reform tax credit helped our company put tens of thousands of dollars into the economy. I see healthcare reform as powerful economic stimulus that really works.

Any cash boost, large or small, is welcome in this economy. We can use the money we save to invest in new equipment and new workers, so we can expand and help grow the economy.

I hope all small businesses owners in Michigan will look into these credits. We need all the help we can get.

For more information about how to claim a credit, small business owners are encouraged to visit http://smallbusinessmajority.org/small-business-research/healthcare.php.

Mark Hodesh is the owner of Downtown Home and Garden in Ann Arbor.

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With the economy still in a slump, small business owners like me are doing everything we can to keep our costs down. A particularly troublesome cost for my business is health insurance.

However, I recently learned there are tax credits in the new healthcare law specifically for small businesses that will help us pocket some extra cash.

In Michigan, 85.1 percent, or 126,300 small businesses were eligible for a credit in 2010; 39,600 small businesses qualified for the maximum tax credit that year.

Unfortunately, I saw a survey from Small Business Majority that said 57 percent of small business owners don't know about the credits. If more small employers took advantage of this opportunity to save money, there would be more cash circulating in our community.

Here's how these tax credits from the Affordable Care Act benefit my mom-and-pop downtown business.

Our business strategy depends on stable, well-informed employees for us to compete with large national box stores. A comprehensive health care insurance plan is the best way for us to attract and keep the good people we need, but our insurance costs have risen 300 percent in 10 years, and competition won't allow us to raise prices enough to cover them.

Under the Affordable Care Act, our store will receive a $15,000 tax credit. That's not all the money in the world, but it means a lot to us and costs the government little or nothing.

Here's how it worked for us. Last spring, when the tea leaves of commerce were hard to read, the tax credit gave me the confidence to hire a new full-time employee.

That employee is now paying taxes. That means thousands of dollars going into government coffers.

After a couple of months, our new person had the confidence to buy a $6,500 motorcycle that increased profits and tax revenue for the motorcycle shop. There's more.

Another employee had been paying nearly $20,000 for his family insurance. Our tax credit gave me the confidence to encourage him to switch to our policy, which now saves that family more than $8,000 per year.

That money is going right into a new roof on the house and education for their kids.

From my perspective as a lifelong, small, downtown business owner, a relatively small health care reform tax credit helped our company put tens of thousands of dollars into the economy. I see healthcare reform as powerful economic stimulus that really works.

Any cash boost, large or small, is welcome in this economy. We can use the money we save to invest in new equipment and new workers, so we can expand and help grow the economy.

I hope all small businesses owners in Michigan will look into these credits. We need all the help we can get.

For more information about how to claim a credit, small business owners are encouraged to visit http://smallbusinessmajority.org/small-business-research/healthcare.php.

Mark Hodesh is the owner of Downtown Home and Garden in Ann Arbor.

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