2020 estate strategies in times of uncertainty for privately held business owners

Read this if you are a business owner or an advisor to business owners.

With continued uncertainty in the business environment stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, now may be a good time to utilize trust, gift, and estate strategies in the transfer of privately held business interests. 

As discussed in our May 26, 2020 article, 2020 estate strategies in times of uncertainty for privately held business owners, there may be opportunity to free up considerable portions of lifetime gift and estate tax exemption amounts. This is due to suppressed values of privately held businesses, the uncertainty surrounding the impact of the 2020 presidential election on tax rates, and future exemption and exclusion thresholds.

An element of consideration is the ability to transfer non-controlling interests in a business. These interests are potentially subject to discounts for lack of control and lack of marketability, which may further reduce the overall value transferred through a given strategy. You could potentially offload a larger percentage of ownership in a business while retaining large portions of the gift and estate lifetime exemption. Part I of this series focused on the discount for lack of control (“DLOC”). Part II focused on the discount for lack of marketability (“DLOM”). In Part III, let’s focus on the application of discounts.

Application of discounts

One area that often trips up people unfamiliar with business valuations is the application of the DLOC and DLOM. These discounts are multiplicative, not additive. The combined effect of a 10% DLOC and a 30% DLOM is not an additive result of 40%, rather a multiplicative result of 37% (mathematically, 1 – [(1 – DLOC) x (1 – DLOM)]). Consider the following example:

Julie has a 10% minority, nonmarketable interest in a business. The equity of the business is worth $1,000,000. Her interest has a pro-rata value of $100,000 (10% of $1,000,000). Julie retained a qualified valuation analyst, who estimated that a 10% discount for lack of control and a 30% discount for lack of marketability were appropriate for the valuation of her interest. The difference in applying these discounts correctly through a multiplicative process and incorrectly through an additive process is demonstrated in the following chart:

It does not matter the order in which a DLOC and a DLOM are applied. Because these discounts are multiplicative, applying either one first will not affect the concluded minority, nonmarketable value.

Conclusion

Business owners are knowledgeable of the facts and circumstances surrounding a business interest. They take a close look at what they are buying before they make an offer. Like most people, they like to be in charge, and they prefer investments that they can readily convert into cash should they so desire. Therefore, people are generally not willing to pay the pro-rata value for a minority interest in a business when the interest lacks control and marketability. To assess appropriate discounts for lack of control and discounts for lack of marketability, consider resources such as those referred to in Part I and Part II of this series, then ensure the selected discounts are appropriate based on the factors specific to the company and interest being valued. From there, the application of the DLOC and DLOM is multiplicative, not additive, as noted in the example above. 

Given the current environment, using trust, gift, and estate strategies that take advantage of discounts for lack of control and marketability offers the opportunity to transfer a higher percentage of interest in a privately held company at a lower value. This potentially frees up additional amounts of remaining thresholds of the lifetime gift and estate tax exemptions. 

Our mission at BerryDunn remains constant in helping each client create, grow, and protect value. If you have questions about your unique situation, or would like more information, please contact the business valuation consulting team.  

Read this is you are a business owner or an advisor to business owners.

With continued uncertainty in the business environment stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, now may be a good time to utilize trust, gift, and estate strategies in the transfer of privately held business interests. 

As discussed in our May 26, 2020 article 2020 estate strategies in times of uncertainty for privately held business owners, there may be opportunity to free up considerable portions of lifetime gift and estate tax exemption amounts. This is possible due to suppressed values of privately held businesses and the uncertainty surrounding the impact of the 2020 presidential election on tax rates and future exemption and exclusion thresholds.

An element to consider is the ability to transfer non-controlling interests in a business. These interests are potentially subject to discounts for lack of control and lack of marketability. The discounts may further reduce the overall value transferred through a given strategy, potentially offloading a larger percentage of ownership in a business while retaining large portions of the gift and estate lifetime exemption. Part I of this series focused on the discount for lack of control. In Part II, let’s focus on the discount for lack of marketability.

Discount for lack of marketability

In the context of a hypothetical willing buyer and willing seller, the buyer may place a greater value on an ownership interest of an investment that is “marketable.” Marketable investments can be bought and sold easily and offer the ability to extract liquidity compared to an interest where transferability and marketability are limited. 

Simply put, buyers would rather own investments they can sell easily, and will pay less for the investment if it lacks this ability. Non-controlling interests in private businesses lack marketability—few people are interested in investing in a business where control rests in someone else’s hands. Discounts for lack of control commonly reduce the value of the transferred interest by 5% to 15%, discounts for lack of marketability can drop value of the business by 25% to 35%.

Market-based evidence of proxies for discounts for lack of marketability can be found within the following resources, studies, and methods (including, but not limited to):

• Various restricted stock studies
• The Quantitative Marketability Discount Model (QMDM) developed by Z. Christopher Mercer
• Various pre-initial public offering studies
• Option pricing models
• Other discounted cash flow models

In addition to these resources, to fully assess the degree of discount applicable to a subject interest, consider company-specific factors when estimating the discount for lack of marketability. The degree of marketability is dependent upon a wide range of factors, such as the payment of dividends, the existence of a pool of prospective buyers, the size of the interest, any restrictions on transfer, and other factors. 

To establish a comprehensive view on the applicable degree of discount, here are more things go consider. In a ruling on the case Mandelbaum v. Commissioner¹, Judge David Laro outlined the primary company-specific factors affecting the discount for lack of marketability, including:

1. Restrictions on transferability and withdrawal
2. Financial statement analysis
3. Dividend policy
4. The size and nature of the interest
5. Management decisions
6. Amount of control in the transferred shares

Conclusion

Business owners are knowledgeable of the facts and circumstances surrounding a business interest. They take a close look at what they are buying before they make an offer. Like most people, they prefer investments they can readily convert into cash, and are therefore generally not willing to pay the pro-rata value for a minority interest in a business when the interest lacks marketability. To assess an appropriate discount for lack of marketability, consider resources such as those referred to above, then ensure selected discounts are appropriate based on the factors specific to the company and interest being valued. 

Our mission at BerryDunn remains constant in helping each client create, grow, and protect value. If you have questions about your unique situation, or would like more information, please contact the business valuation consulting team.

Part III of this series will focus on the application of DLOC and DLOM to a subject interest.

¹Mandelbaum v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 1995-255 (June 13, 1995).

Read this is you are a business owner or an advisor to business owners.

With continued uncertainty in the business environment stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, now may be a good time to utilize trust, gift, and estate strategies in the transfer of privately held business interests. 

As discussed in our May 26, 2020 blog post 2020 estate strategies in times of uncertainty for privately held business owners, there may be opportunity to free up considerable portions of lifetime gift and estate tax exemption amounts through transfers due to suppressed values of privately held businesses, and the uncertainty surrounding the impact of the 2020 presidential election on tax rates and future exemption and exclusion thresholds. 

An element to consider when building on this opportunity is the ability to transfer non-controlling interests in a business. These interests are potentially subject to discounts for lack of control and lack of marketability. This may further reduce the overall value transferred through a given strategy, potentially offloading a larger percentage of ownership in a business while retaining large portions of the gift and estate lifetime exemption. Let’s focus on the discount for lack of control (DLOC).

Discount for lack of control

In the context of a hypothetical willing buyer and willing seller, the buyer may place a greater value on an ownership interest with the ability to make changes at their discretion, compared to an alternative ownership interest lacking control. Simply put, buyers like to be in control, and they will pay less for the investment if the interest lacks these characteristics. 

When valuing non-controlling business interests there is an inherent discount to full value recognized to reflect the fact that the subject interest does not hold a controlling position. As a result of this discount, the value of a non-controlling interest in a company will differ from the pro-rata value per share of the entire company. DLOCs alone commonly reduce the value of the transferred interest by 5% to 15%.

All else being equal, a non-controlling ownership position is less desirable (valuable) than a controlling position. This is because of the majority owner’s right to control any or all of the following activities: managing the assets or selecting agents for this purpose, controlling major business decisions, asset allocation choices, setting salary levels, admitting new investors, acquiring assets, selling the company, and declaring/paying distributions.
 
Market-based evidence of proxies for DLOCs can be found within the following subscription-based databases (including, but not limited to): 

• Control premium studies published in the Mergerstat^® Review series by FactSet Mergerstat/Business Valuation Resources
• Closed-end fund data
• The Partnership Profiles, Inc. Minority Interest Database and Executive Summary Report on Re-Sale Discounts for applicable entity types

In addition to these resources, to fully assess the degree of discount applicable to a subject interest, consider company-specific factors when estimating the DLOC. The degree of control for a subject interest may be impacted by relevant state statutes and the governing documents of the subject company. These factors are analyzed in conjunction with the current operational and financial policies established and implemented in practice by management to establish a comprehensive view on the applicable degree of discount.

Conclusion

Hypothetical business owners are knowledgeable of the facts and circumstances surrounding a business interest. They take a close look at what they are buying before they make an offer. Like most people, they like to be in charge, and are therefore generally not willing to pay the pro-rata value for a minority interest in a business when the interest lacks control. To assess an appropriate discount for lack of control, consider resources such as those referred to above, then ensure the selected discounts are appropriate based on the factors specific to the company and interest being valued. 

Our mission at BerryDunn remains constant in helping each client create, grow, and protect value. If you have questions about your unique situation, or would like more information, please contact the business valuation consulting team.

Read this if you are a business owner.

While recent articles within the exit planning community have noted a slowing of business transitions and exits, during times of uncertainty it may be even more important to focus on the opportunity at hand. Rather than waiting it out, we recommend that business owners try to be active, involved, and focus their efforts on improving their business.

The situation is similar to the ebb and flow of the tide. The current economy is the tide at an extreme low point. We know that the economy will recover, so what can be done in the meantime to take advantage of opportunities, and be ready to succeed when the tide rises?

Changing of tides

Suddenly, there has been a rapid and seismic shift in the landscape. Weaknesses and threats, rocks and hazards, may have emerged. How you choose to approach these perils will make a difference in the long term. Will you take the opportunity to discover, identify, assess, shore up, and mitigate these elements?

It is important to view this current state in the context of the larger, long-term perspective. Once the tide comes back, will you be able to set full sail ahead having built resiliency, redundancy, and strength into those areas while you had the opportunity? While the water is low, it presents a great opportunity for business owners to discover and understand: 

• What broke first and why? 
• How can you shore it up for better operations in the days ahead?
• What weak spots you didn’t know about are now apparent?
• How can you address those weaknesses?
• How can you leverage existing resources differently to chart a path forward?

Models of priority

There are various stages or hierarchies of priority in thinking about the progress of a business. 

Each priority model features bases and pinnacles. The pinnacles of each model are realized in a long-term setting, after the remaining bases have been solidified. While continued development of a clear vision for your business is paramount, dynamic shifts in the landscape call for reassessment of the bases. In the long-term, self-fulfillment manifests from properly executed strategy, but in the near- and mid-term, these various frameworks force strategic planning back to assess and address the base components. 

The bases of each model should serve as safe havens for reversion. When facing uncertainty and failure, have you made your base strong enough to redirect your efforts in an actionable plan for the long-term?

Action Planning Pyramid and Value Maturity Index

The Value Maturity Index, broken into five stages is a stepwise assessment of active exit and business strategy. Inherent in the value acceleration framework are the concepts of resiliency, redundancy, disaster recover, and actionable planning.

While we may have been fully entrenched in the build phase, setbacks due to dynamic changes in the landscape force us back to protect mode—the assessment and methodical shoring up of weaker points of the operation to protect against future downside risks.

Though this stepwise progression is linear in nature, keep in mind that flexibility and adaptability are paramount in changing course to address needs of your current state.

When we look at action planning, parallels can be drawn to the various models. Certainly, we are focused on continuing sales, marketing, and customer relationships, but it becomes a question of reversion to meeting the basic needs and serving client’s pain points rather than  beginning ground-breaking efforts. 

The current climate forces us to the base, with a focus on solidifying the exposed areas that may have been made apparent, and likely compounded, by the current realities. Concerns on management, metrics, core values, and priorities serve as the bases in need of coverage.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs¹ is a well-known motivational theory in psychology that comprises a five-tiered model of human needs, whereby each successive tier must be fulfilled (beginning at the base) before rising to the next tier. It can be used to view similar information from a psychological perspective.

Value acceleration and creating successful outcomes are largely tied to a clear long-term vision. We typically reside in the Self-actualization level of the hierarchy of needs when undertaking the high-level view of the framework.

Based on the adaptability and call for sudden directional changes in today’s climate, we are not as concerned with these top levels. We have them in our back pocket for easy recall, but they are not the pressing issue staring us in the face.

If we think about shoring up bases (the Protect Stage), in considering this psychological model, our focus is on the “basic needs” level. That is, keeping people (self, family, and employees) safe and remaining connected for immediate continuity.

McKinsey & Company Event Horizons

Many others in related fields are viewing the current situation in similar terms. In the McKinsey & Company Events Horizon view²:

• Resolve addresses those immediate hurdles and challenges a business is currently facing.
• Resilience focuses on near-term items to be addressed once the initial base is covered. 
• Return views the mid-term horizon in understanding how to return to scale by focusing on understanding metrics and increasing the frequency of measurements for informed decision making. 
• Reimagination and Reform typically go hand in hand, but without covering bases of needs, crafting a dynamic shift in operations to incorporate new environments may be counterproductive. 

However, once these bases have been clearly assessed and addressed, the path forward may appear dramatically different, in which case creative solutions to enhance opportunity should begin to form. Examples of this may include newly emerged revenue streams and opportunity areas, fully integrated systems and dashboards to capture timely decision making data points, or pivots in your business model adaptable and reactive to new environments.

One example that has been in the news recently involves CEOs being pleasantly surprised that productivity of employees has not dropped even though people are working from home. How sustainable is this productivity? What implications might this have for corporate real estate and office settings? The answers will vary widely, depending on your business and competitive environment.

Exposure, discover, and control

Back to our tides analogy for a moment. As the water receded, what new rocks were exposed or what existing challenges became more apparent? What is your plan to address these areas? Is this the time to make large investments in your company or the right investments? Now that the tide is out, it is time to shore up, move the rocks, and address elements of your business to prepare for long-term successes. Through our assessments, risk profiling, and benchmarking analyses, we help business owners discover the largest gaps across the company, prioritize the most impactful problem areas to address, and implement changes to enhance business value through continuous improvement. 

Taking stock of your company’s future through the incorporation of lessons learned will bolster value in the long-term by de-risking and developing new opportunities, methods, work, shifts in productivity, and shifts in mentality. That approach also brings lots of questions: If there are no early warning signs, why not? What should your indicators be? What metrics are crucial in identifying the pulse of your current situation? What is your business reliant on? How can you build information and indicators for rapid shifts in decision making? How strong are your current controls and how integrated are your management and information systems?

To answer these questions, you need to quantify and develop metrics that will aid in the early identification of future challenges, thus increasing your responsiveness with data-driven decision mechanisms. Having your fingers on the pulse of your company and understanding the impact of each input to your strategy will focus your attention on the information that matters most. This allows you to understand, position, and adapt to changes in your business and community environment in a proactive and agile manner. Measurements, forecasts, and dashboards should provide you with regular, valid, and relevant information you can use to take informed action in decision making.

Historical look backs during various points of time will allow you to key in on pivotal data indicators and inflection points. When looking at this from an operational view, industry and economic factors impacting your company can serve as corroborating pieces of evidence to further support data metrics analyzed.

As you perform look backs, it is also best practice to regularly study and update development, pipeline, and reliance metrics for feedback and information discovery with data integrated throughout your operations. This helps avoid lag time in reporting on stale information towards real-time actionable data points.  

Each metric is specific to your business and can be directly mapped back to increases in shareholder value. Understanding these drivers of business value will focus your attention and intention on improving in the right areas, while avoiding distracting and less impactful pain points.

Don’t fret over precision, rather build in flexibility and adaptability with scenario- and sensitivity-based criterion to understand changes, implications, and reliance of each input. Understanding these relationships in a broader scheme aid you in quick, impactful decision making guiding you towards enhanced value.

Resilience until the tides rise

This approach allows opportunity to fully assess the known and unknown problem areas, weaknesses, perils, and hazards your business may be facing. From that base you can begin to address these issues to scale effectively with lower overall risk when activity picks up.

Management metrics, core values, and priorities drive resilience for long-term continuity by shoring up the foundation to build for the future. Assembling evidence in troubled times provides opportunity to capitalize on and fulfill core values. Documenting these decisions and improvements memorialize your decision making, impact on value enhancement, and should serve as a playbook for future events.

What you make of the time you have now through identification, assessment, and addressing newly emerged risk areas provides the opportunity to increase success once the economy rebounds. We are here to help. If you have questions about your particular situation, or would like more information, please contact the business valuation consulting team. 

¹Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Saul McLeod, updated March 20, 2020. SimplyPsychology. www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html.
²Beyond coronavirus: The path to the next normal, Kevin Sneader and Shubham Singhal, McKinsey & Company, March 23, 2020.  www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/beyond-coronavirus-the-path-to-the-next-normal. COVID-19: Briefing note, March 30, 2020, Our latest perspectives on the coronavirus pandemic. Matt Craven, Mihir Mysore, Shubham Singhal, Sven Smit, and Matt Wilson. McKinsey & Company. www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-business.

Read this if you want more information about the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Most likely you have heard of the PPP within the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that was passed into law March 27, 2020. Below, we’ve shared some of the questions we have heard from many of our clients. If you need more information or have questions regarding your specific question, please contact us. 

Question #1: What was the PPP designed for? 
Answer: The PPP was designed with the goal of keeping American workers paid and employed. It aims to accomplish this by issuing loans to qualified businesses so that they can continue paying employees and other qualified expenses.

Question #2: Do you or your business qualify for this? 
Answer: There are several considerations when determining whether or not a business qualifies. For more information, see this recent blog post from Seth Webber, which address a number of these considerations. 

Question #3: What should the PPP loan be used to cover in your business?
Answer: The intent of allowable uses includes: (i) payroll costs, including (a) employee salaries, commissions, or similar compensations, (b) group health care benefits, (c) paid vacation, parental, sick, medical, or family leave, (d) allowances for dismissal or separation, (e) retirement benefits, and (f) state or local tax assessed on the compensation on employee;  (ii) payments of interest on any mortgage obligation, but not prepayment or payment of principal amounts; (ii) rent (including rent under a lease agreement); (iv) utilities; and (v) interest on any other debt obligations incurred before February 15, 2020. However, certain payroll costs are excluded, including salaries and wages which annualized amounts would result in compensation over $100,000 and sick and family leave wages for which a credit is allowed under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.  

Additionally, you should consider the time period your allowable expenses are designated for. The Small Business Administration (SBA), in consultation with the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) and responses to these FAQs as of April 10, 2020, Paycheck Protection Program Loans FAQs. Within these FAQs, Question 20 asked, “The amount of forgiveness of a PPP loan depends on the borrower’s payroll costs over an eight-week period; when does that eight-week period begin?” The SBA and Treasury noted, “The eight-week period begins on the date the lender makes the first disbursement of the PPP loan to the borrower. The lender must make the first disbursement of the loan no later than ten (10) calendar days from the date of loan approval.” 

Question #4: What portion of the loan, if any, can be forgiven?
Answer: The Treasury Department issued guidance on March 31, 2020 indicating that at least 75% of the forgiven amount should be used for qualified payroll costs. Although the covered period is specified as February 15, 2020 through June 30, 2020, forgiveness amounts of the loan are based on expenses (primarily payroll) during the eight-week period following the receipt of the loan. There are other aspects of the forgiveness provisions that impact the actual amount forgiven, including maintaining or quickly rehiring employees and maintaining salary levels, with the overall forgiveness amount being reduced if full-time headcount declines, or if salaries and wages decrease more than 25%.

Question #5: What about the portion of your loan that is not forgiven?
Answer: For the portion of loan not forgiven, the life and terms of the residual loan appear favorable. Current guidance indicates a repayment period of two year loan at 1% interest. Included within this is a six-month deferral period on principal repayment. The loan does not require collateral or a personal guarantee.

Question #6: How should you keep track of the funding and allowable costs?
Answer: Best practice would be to set up a separate banking account. This will allow you to bifurcate the funding source and offset that amount by costs tracked over the covered period directly. This allows you to use other cash reserves and funding sources to meet other expense needs during the covered period. The funds need to be brought over (into that separate banking account) within 10 days of the application being approved.

Question #7: What other resources are available if the PPP is not a good fit for you?
Answer: There are additional programs available through the Small Business Administration (SBA) including the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, which features an advance amount (EIDL Emergency Grant) of up to $10,000. Guidance remains outstanding on exact implications of the EIDL Emergency Grant amount with some SBA offices pointing to $1,000 per employee up to a total max of $10,000. This EIDL Emergency Grant does not have to be repaid, but if you subsequently receive funding through the PPP, your forgiveness amount will be reduced by the EIDL Emergency Grant amount. The EIDL program also features a max life of 30 year loan with interest rates of 3.75% and 2.75% for entities that are for-profit and non-profit, respectively. More information on this is detailed in Dave Erb’s recent blog post.

If you do not need to make use of the PPP and EIDL programs, but still face significant downturns in your revenue base, tax relief in the form of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) may also be an option. The provisions of the ERC within the CARES Act specify eligibility as, an employer that does not participate in the PPP and: (i) a complete or partial shutdown in operations; or (ii) at least a 50% decline in gross receipts, based on quarterly comparison from 2020 to 2019. The ERC allows for a tax credit of 50% of qualified wages (max wages of $10,000 per employee and max credit of $5,000 per employee). For more information on the ERC provisions, see Bill Enck’s blog post.

As developments continue to unfold and changes in guidance continue to emerge, the BerryDunn Recovery Advisory Team can help you stay informed through the BerryDunn COVID-19 Resource Center.

Read this if you are an employer with employees on COBRA. There are tax credits available to you. 

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) creates a requirement that employers treat the total payment for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) continuation coverage due from certain eligible individuals as being “paid in full” for April 1 through September 30, 2021 (Subsidy Period). The eligible individuals with COBRA coverage will not receive the subsidy directly from the government; rather, they will have a premium holiday during which time the employer pays 100% of the applicable COBRA premium. The employer will be reimbursed in full through refundable payroll tax credits.

The ARP provisions do not apply to all COBRA-eligible individuals; eligibility is limited to employees who lost health care benefits due to an involuntary termination or reduction in hours. While the loss of coverage event can be linked to COVID-19, it is not required to be. A loss of coverage event could have occurred as far back as November 1, 2019, since the law requires an employer to offer a continuation of COBRA coverage for 18 months after an involuntary termination (18 months from November 1, 2019 is April 30, 2021). Eligible individuals who opted not to pay for COBRA coverage will be given another opportunity to elect the free coverage.

Employers and COBRA administrators should prepare to distribute new COBRA election and subsidy notices and to make operational changes soon after further guidance is released. Eligible individuals not already on COBRA will need to act quickly after receiving the notice to elect subsidized COBRA coverage. Failing to timely elect COBRA coverage could result in forfeiting this valuable benefit.

It is expected many people will rush to take advantage of this opportunity, which can provide up to six months of health insurance at no cost. However, employers should keep in mind that the subsidy is available only for certain limited situations.

Which employers are eligible for the new subsidy?

Employers subject to federal COBRA provisions or to a state program that provides comparable group health care continuation coverage are not allowed to charge eligible individuals for COBRA coverage during the Subsidy Period. The subsidy applies to workers in every industry, most tax-exempt employers (except churches who are exempt from COBRA) and union, governmental, and Indian tribal government workers. The federal COBRA provisions generally apply to all private-sector group health plans maintained by employers that had at least 20 employees on more than 50% of its typical business days in the previous calendar year. Both full- and part-time employees are counted to determine whether a plan is subject to federal COBRA coverage. Many states have “mini-COBRA” laws that apply to employers who have fewer than 20 employees. The subsidy is mandatory for all employer-sponsored group health plans (i.e., all employers must offer the subsidy, regardless of whether the plan is fully or partially insured, or self-insured).

During the Subsidy Period, generally, the federal government will reimburse COBRA costs to employers by allowing credits against employers' Medicare (not Social Security or income) taxes (but for union plans, the plan would receive the subsidy and for insured, state “mini-COBRA” plans, the insurer would receive the subsidy). Guidance is needed to clarify how the flow of funds for the subsidy would work. The full cost of COBRA continuation coverage (including up to a 2% administrative fee) at any coverage level (e.g., single, “single-plus-one”, or family coverage) for employees and former employees and their spouses and dependents is eligible for the subsidy via the payroll tax credit. The subsidy applies to health, prescription drug, dental and vision plans, but does not apply to health flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health savings accounts (HSAs), or long-term care plans (further guidance is needed to clarify the scope of the subsidy).  

Due to the fact that most individuals who elect COBRA group health care continuation coverage usually pay 100% of those premiums (and in many cases they must also pay up to a 2% administrative fee), the new subsidy via the employment tax credit keeps the free COBRA coverage at zero cost to the employer. While the employment tax credit is taxable income, it will be offset by the employer’s deductible payment of the healthcare premiums.

Impact on eligible individuals

An eligible individual with an existing or new COBRA election will be provided tax-free health care coverage (both the premium and any administrative charge) at no charge for their remaining COBRA period that overlaps with the Subsidy Period.   

The free COBRA provided during the Subsidy Period would be “affordable” coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But it is not clear how this “affordable” coverage affects an individual who has purchased coverage on the exchange before they had an offer of affordable coverage.

A recipient of the free health care coverage must notify the employer or plan administrator when they become eligible for Medicare or another group health plan—other than coverage under an excepted benefit, an FSA or a qualified small employer health reimbursement arrangement (QSEHRA). Individuals who fail to promptly give this notice could be subject to a $250 fine and other penalties.

Who is eligible?

Generally, individuals are eligible for free COBRA coverage if (1) they are involuntarily terminated or have a reduction in hours that qualifies them for federal or state COBRA coverage and (2) the Subsidy Period overlaps with their COBRA coverage period.

The new COBRA premium assistance is not available to the following individuals:

• Employees who are terminated for gross misconduct.
• Employees who voluntarily terminated their employment or who retired.
• Individuals who are eligible for COBRA due to other reasons, like divorce, death, or loss of dependency status.
• Individuals who are eligible for other group health care coverage (such as from a new employer) or Medicare.
• Individuals who are beyond their normal COBRA coverage period connected to the original qualifying event (i.e., the employee’s involuntary termination or reduction in hours that caused a loss of group health plan coverage).
• Domestic partners who are not federal income tax dependents of the employee.

What’s the coverage?

Generally, the COBRA coverage will be the same as the coverage elected just prior to the involuntary termination or reduction in hours. However, employers can (but are not required to) allow individuals who are eligible for premium assistance to change their coverage provided it does not result in an increased premium cost. Further guidance is needed regarding the scope of who can change to a lower cost health plan as a result of the new law.

Eligible individuals who lost health care coverage after October 31, 2019 but do not have COBRA coverage on April 1, 2021 due to nonelection or lapse of payment will have a new, 60-day opportunity to elect COBRA coverage. If timely elected, the COBRA covered period will begin on the date of the individual’s qualifying event, but it appears that no payment is due for months prior to April 2021 and no claims can be filed prior to April 1, 2021. For the months remaining in the COBRA period that coincide with April 1 through September 30, 2021, the employee makes no payment but will have claims paid in accordance with the plan’s provisions. To have continued coverage after September 30, 2021, the employee must make the payments required under the plan. If the individual finds this unaffordable, they can simply drop the coverage.

What notices are needed?

The federal government is expected to issue model required notices addressing the existence of the subsidy, the availability of the 60-day election period and advance notice of when the Subsidy Period will be ending. In the meantime, employers should prepare for the following new notice requirements.

• Group health plans must modify their COBRA election notices for individuals who become eligible for federal or state COBRA during the Subsidy Period to notify them of the premium assistance (and, if applicable, the option to enroll in a lower priced plan).
• By May 31, 2021, individuals who previously rejected (or terminated) COBRA coverage and to whom a new election period must be offered, must be notified of their new election period and the availability of the premium assistance. This essentially creates a special COBRA enrollment period for such individuals.
• Between August 17 and September 15, 2021, group health plans must provide a notice to individuals receiving the premium assistance stating that the subsidy will expire on September 30, 2021, and that they may be eligible for COBRA coverage without the subsidy. But if the subsidy would end earlier for any individual, the plan must provide a notice that the subsidy is expiring no earlier than 45 days and no later than 15 days before the subsidy expiration date.

It is not clear how these required notices must be delivered (sending paper mail to former employees may be needed).

How does the subsidy work?

Individuals who are eligible for COBRA premium assistance do not receive a payment from the federal government, group health plan, employer, or insurer. Rather, their COBRA costs are waived during the Subsidy Period.

Employers that sponsor a fully insured plan would continue paying the full premium to the insurer for the assistance eligible participants. Employers that sponsor a self-insured plan would pay the claims incurred by the assistance eligible participants. In both cases, the employer would receive no payment from the eligible individual during the Subsidy Period but would instead recover its COBRA costs (102% of the COBRA premium) for the assistance-eligible individuals by claiming a refundable federal tax credit against the employer’s Medicare taxes.

The COBRA subsidy is prospective only and cannot begin before April 1, 2021.

Although the law does not require employers to pay for any COBRA coverage, some employers pay for some or all of COBRA coverage (for example, as part of a severance package). Such employers can cease those contributions during the Subsidy Period and the federal government will provide the subsidy for 6 months. And although the subsidy is tax-free to employees, employers who take the COBRA premium tax credit must increase their gross income by the amount of such credit for the taxable year which includes the last day of any calendar quarter with respect to which such credit is allowed.
 
Also, under a “no double dipping” rule, employers cannot take the COBRA premium tax credit for any amount which is taken into account as qualified wages for the employee retention credit (ERC) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) and Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA), or as qualified health plan expenses for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), as amended by CAA and ARP. Likewise, amounts attributable to the COBRA premium tax credit would not be eligible payroll costs under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Guidance from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is needed to clarify how exactly employers would claim the tax credit, but it appears that employers would claim the credit on their quarterly IRS Form 941 or in advance on IRS Form 7200 if the actual or estimated amount of the credit exceeds the employer's Medicare taxes for any calendar quarter. Further guidance is also needed regarding the mechanics of the subsidy for employers that have insured state COBRA coverage, since under Section 9501(b) of the ARP the tax credits reimbursements would go to the insurer, not the employer.

Other considerations

For past COVID-19 relief tax credits, such as the ERC and FFCRA, IRS guidance allowed employers to dip into withheld income and Social Security taxes as a source of claiming those refundable tax credits. But the IRS has not yet authorized such actions for the ARP COBRA subsidy tax credit. Social Security taxes may not be available as a source for the new COBRA tax credits, since the ARP was enacted under budget reconciliation rules which prohibit any changes to Social Security.

Employers are not allowed to voluntarily expand the group of people who are eligible for the special COBRA premium subsidy, because the federal government is paying the full COBRA premium for the designated class of assistance-eligible individuals.

We expect the IRS to issue FAQs on the new COBRA Medicare tax credits, similar to the FAQs that the IRS issued on the ERC and FFCRA payroll tax credits.

This new COBRA subsidy may be economically more valuable than using qualified health care expenses for the ERC, because ERC nets 70% on the dollar whereas the COBRA subsidy is 102% (premium plus administrative charge).

What should employers do now?

Employers should immediately identify all employees who lost group health plan coverage after October 31, 2019 due to an involuntary termination or reduction in hours, without regard to their COBRA elections, because such event would have entitled the individual to 18 months of COBRA coverage (i.e., through April 30, 2021). Guidance is needed on whether notices must be given to individuals in this group that declined COBRA due to eligibility in another employer’s plan or Medicare. Employers will need to notify individuals who have an unexpired COBRA period that premium assistance is available, and they have a right to reconsider their original COBRA election.  

Employers will also need to review and perhaps modify any existing, automatic processes that might otherwise terminate COBRA coverage when premiums are not received during the Subsidy Period.

Year-end reporting on health benefits should also be reviewed to ensure these increased COBRA participants receive the appropriate Form 1095-B or C for 2021.

Employers should develop a procedure to identify COBRA recipients who are eligible for the premium assistance and those who do not qualify (for example, employers will need to distinguish a voluntary quit from an involuntary termination of employment and whether the employee was fired for gross misconduct). For premium-assistance eligible individuals, employers must refund within 60 days any premiums paid during the Subsidy Period. Not all COBRA participants will qualify for the subsidy, so the plan administrator will still need to handle some premium payments from non-eligible individuals.

Vendor outreach

Many employers use outside service providers for their COBRA administration, so employers should reach out to their vendors as soon as possible to coordinate their response to the ARP changes to current COBRA rules, especially the special election period for certain assistance-eligible individuals.

Keep in mind that, separate from the ARP COBRA subsidy, many employees (and their family members) may currently have extended COBRA election rights due to COVID-19 deadline extensions. For example, ERISA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-1 issued on February 26, 2021, announced an individualized one-year deadline extension for COBRA elections, which begins on the date the clock for the particular deadline would have started running (i.e., the one-year extension is applied on a rolling basis to each deadline for each affected individual). But individuals electing retroactive COBRA coverage under those extended deadlines will generally have to pay the full COBRA premiums for such periods. Guidance is needed on how the deadline extension coordinates with the new COBRA subsidy.

Employers may recall that in February 2009, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the federal government subsidized 65% of COBRA premiums for certain individuals who were terminated or laid off between September 1, 2008 and March 31, 2010 due to the financial crisis linked to the bursting of the home mortgage lending bubble. The ARRA subsidy was extended through May 31, 2010, so perhaps with Democrats currently controlling both Congress and the White House, the ARP COBRA subsidy may be extended beyond September 30, 2021. Also, the ARRA may be a model for how the flow of funds will work for the ARP premium tax credits for insured state COBRA coverage.

If you have specific questions about your situation, please contact our Employee Benefits consulting team. We’re here to help. 

Read this if you are an employer with basic knowledge of benefit plans and want to learn more. 

This article is the third in a series to help employee benefit plan fiduciaries better understand their responsibilities and manage the risks of non-compliance with Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) requirements. Our first article covers the background of ERISA, while our second article covers the definitions and rules of parties-in-interest and prohibited transactions.

Form 5500 is an informational return filed annually with the US Department of Labor (DOL). The purpose of Form 5500 is to report information concerning the operation, funding, assets, and investments of pension and other employee benefit plans to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and DOL. All pension benefit plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and, generally, health and welfare plans covering 100 or more participants are subject to filing Form 5500. Any retirement plan covering less than 100 participants at the beginning of the plan year may be able to file Form 5500-SF, Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan. Read on for important filing requirements, as noncompliance can result in substantial penalties assessed by both the DOL and IRS. 

Who has to file, and which Form 5500 is required?

Pension plans

The most common types of pension benefit plan filers include:

• Retirement plans qualified under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) § 401(a)
• Tax sheltered annuity plans under IRC § 403(b)(1) and 403(b)(7)
• SIMPLE 401(k) Plan under IRC § 401(k)(11)
• Direct Filing Entity (DFE)

Which Form 5500 you should file depends on the type of plan. Small plans covering less than 100 participants as of the beginning of the plan year will normally file a Form 5500-SF. Conversely, large plans, mainly those plans covering 100 or more participants as of the beginning of the plan year, will file Form 5500 as a general rule. 

Participants include all current employees eligible for the plan, former employees still covered, and deceased employees who have one or more beneficiaries eligible for or receiving benefits under the plan.

Welfare plans

Generally, all welfare benefit plans covered by ERISA are required to file a Form 5500. Common types of welfare benefit plans include but are not limited to medical, dental, life insurance, severance pay, disability, and scholarship funds.

Similar to pension plans, the required Form 5500 to be filed typically depends on whether the plan is a small plan with less than 100 participants at the beginning of the year, or a large plan with 100 or more participants at the beginning of the plan year. However, certain welfare benefit plans are not required to file an annual Form 5500, including, but not limited to:

• Plans with fewer than 100 participants at the beginning of the plan year and that are unfunded, fully insured, or a combination of the two
• Governmental plans 
• Employee benefit plans maintained only to comply with workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation, or disability insurance laws

Participants for welfare benefit plans include current employees covered by the plan, former employees still covered, and deceased employees who have one or more beneficiaries receiving or entitled to receive benefits under the plan (e.g., COBRA). 

Required financial schedules for Form 5500

Small plans that do not file Form 5500-SF require the following schedules to be filed along with the Form 5500:

• Schedule A—Insurance information
• Schedule D—DFE/Participating plan information
• Schedule I—Financial information for a small plan

Large plans require the following schedules in addition to small plan schedules:

• Plan Audit (Accountant’s Opinion)
• Schedule C—Service provider information
• Schedule G—Financial transaction schedules
• Schedule H—Financial information (instead of Schedule I)

Welfare plans with 100 or more participants that are unfunded, fully insured or a combination of the two are not required to attach Schedule H or an Accountant’s Opinion. Also, pension plans will attach Schedule SB or MB reporting actuarial information, if required, along with Schedule R reporting retirement plan information.

When to File

Form 5500 must be filed electronically by the last day of the seventh calendar month after the end of the plan year. However, a two and one-half months’ extension of time to file can be requested. Penalties may be assessed by both the IRS and the DOL for failure to file an annual Form 5500-series return. For 2020, the IRS penalty for late filing is $250 per day, up to a maximum of $150,000 (applies only to retirement plans), and the DOL penalty can run up to $2,233 per day, with no maximum. Therefore, it is very important to track participant counts and ensure compliance with filing deadlines.

If you have questions about your specific situation, please contact our employee benefit consulting team. We’re here to help.