Pre-tax Premiums

Pre-tax premiums can be identified by reviewing an employee’s pay stub. Each stub contains important information regarding the employee’s gross salary or wages, federal income tax withheld and deductions for employer-sponsored benefits. Most employer-sponsored health plans are classified as cafeteria plans, which means employees are allowed to contribute some of their gross income to the plan before any taxes are withheld.

For taxpayers enrolled in employer-sponsored health plans, determining if health premiums are pre-tax is as easy as viewing the pay stub and looking for a column labeled “Deductions,” “Before-tax Deductions” or something similar. If a health premium appears in this column and is deducted from the employee’s gross pay before any taxes are calculated, it is a pre-tax premium.

Post-tax Premiums

Health premiums are classified as post-tax earnings if they are paid with a taxpayer’s net income. Gross income is the amount of money a person earns before any taxes are withheld, while net income is defined as the amount of take-home pay that is left over after any taxes other payroll deductions. If an employee with $1,000 in gross income pays $200 in federal taxes, $40 in state taxes and $76.50 in Medicare and Social Security taxes, she has $683.50 left over in net income. If any of this net income is used to pay a health premium, then the premium is classified as a post-tax premium.

If an employer deducts an employee’s health premiums after income taxes have already been calculated, the premiums are classified as post-tax. Since most employer-sponsored health plans qualify as cafeteria plans, however, this is an uncommon situation. For taxpayers who purchase coverage directly from an insurance company, the premiums are post-tax, as they are paid with the taxpayer’s net income.

Tax Implications

Pre-tax and post-tax premiums have different effects on an individual’s tax situation. One of the major benefits of pre-tax premiums is that they reduce a person’s taxable income. If someone with $1,000 of gross income and no deductions has federal tax withheld from his pay at a rate of 20%, he would pay $200 in federal taxes, and his net pay would be $800. In this example, the employee’s taxable income is $1,000. If the same employee has $150 deducted from his pay for health coverage, his taxable income is only $850. Thus, the employer would only deduct $170 for federal taxes.
Taxpayers with pre-tax premiums get a tax break each time they get paid.

In contrast, taxpayers who pay their premiums with post-tax earnings are allowed to deduct the premiums when they file their tax returns, but only in certain circumstances. The Internal Revenue Service only allows taxpayers to itemize medical expenses, including payments for health premiums, if they exceed 7.5% of a taxpayer’s adjusted gross income.

The post How Do I Know If My Health Insurance Premiums are Considered Pre-Tax or Post-Tax Earnings? appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.

Putting in an application for citizenship or immigration status
When you seek immigration status, you have to submit an application to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, better known as USCIS. When you do so, they will provide you with a receipt that will essentially confirm that you have sought status. On your receipt, you will find a receipt number. This, rather than your alien number, is the number you will need in order to check your immigration status online.

The next step is to go to the USCIS website with your immigration receipt number. When there, you will be asked to enter this number along with some other information. You may be required to submit your full name and birth date. It should match what you submitted when you first put in an application to the USCIS. This information will allow the automated system to pull up your information. When it does, it will provide you with an update on what has taken place on your case. You’ll get information on whether your case is pending, whether a decision has been made and any pending action that is needed from you.

What if I don’t have this information?
There are often cases where people won’t have their receipt number. Perhaps you lost the documentation. Perhaps you can’t figure out which number to use or the system is not pulling up your status when you enter what you think is the proper number. When these things happen, you will need to put in a phone call to the USCIS. While the agency prefers to handle most of its business on the Internet, it does handle phone calls to make things easier on people who may have these sorts of questions.

You will need to call 1-800-375-5283 and explain what has happened in your situation. Generally speaking, the people there will be willing to help you locate your receipt number as long as you can provide them with enough information to identify the application. Once you have the receipt number, you will be able to go online to the USCIS website and check your application again. You should expect lengthy processing times when you call, as the USCIS can sometimes be overwhelmed with phone calls. However, if you have the patience to do so, you will likely get the information you need by making this call.

The post How To Check Immigration Status Online With An Alien Number appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.

In light of a lack of a national ID card system, the Social Security Number has been used for decades as a go-to form of identification for quite a few purposes. Your SSN is part of your credit history, employment record and even criminal background profile. The Federal Bureau of Investigation treats the SSN as a criminal record number, and this is despite warnings by the Social Security Administration to not use this number for purposes other than accessing benefits. The Internal Revenue Service also uses the SSN as an individual taxpayer identification number, although foreigners and self-employed professionals can obtain separate ITINs to conduct business and report income.

The widespread use of the SSN in the U.S. makes it possible to locate people in some cases. The first step of the process is to validate the SSN through the online system maintained by the Social Security Administration at www.ssa.gov/employer/ssnv.htm. It is important to keep in mind that the use of this system requires registration and it is intended for employers who wish to verify their new hires. Part of the SSN structure is considered to be public information; this allows some websites to offer limited online validation tools.

Since SSNs are used by many private and public entities, they often end up being included in records managed by information brokers, particularly by credit reporting bureaus. Private investigators often subscribe to databases that match SSNs to public records; this combination of information sources can be used to locate individuals. Your best bet is to provide private investigators with as much information about the person as possible because the SSN by itself may not yield accurate results.

Ancestry websites that compile vital statistics reported to the SSA manage databases with records of deceased individuals. If you suspect that the person you are looking for is no longer with us, you can use the SSN to search these databases and find the burial or internment site. If the person you are trying to find owes child support, you should contact your local enforcement agency; in this case, you may not even need to provide the SSN in question.

The post Tracking Down People Using Social Security Numbers appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.

What taxes are due when you sell an investment property?
If you buy a property for $200,000 and sell it for $300,000 five years later, then you may be required to pay capital gains taxes on the $100,000 windfall. The idea is that you have made money from an investment, and that investment gain is subject to federal taxation. This is the same sort of tax you might pay if you happen to buy stock in a company and sell it for a profit a few years later.

The current tax avoidance rules respect how investors actually deal with property
It would make little sense to require investors to constantly pay taxes on their profits when they are just going to be re-investing the money in the first place. With this in mind, the existing body of laws takes into account the way investors actually spend their money. Lawmakers understand that when you sell a property for a profit, you are probably not putting that money under your mattress. You’ll be looking to eye another property that can bring in additional gains. The rules have been written to allow you to re-invest your money to avoid the tax hit. The key, though, is doing so within the appropriate timeframe.

Avoiding tax liability through a 1031 exchange
The law allows what is known as a 1031 exchange, which allows you to buy new property with the proceeds of your sale. In order to do this, you have to close on a new property within 180 days after you close the sale on your old property. As long as you do this, you can avoid the tax hit. Keep in mind that these dates deal with closing dates. This means that you will need to initiate the purchase process on your new property well before the 180-day limit. Closing can take a month or more in some cases, so you should give yourself enough lag time. If you’re making that next purchase in cash, then your closing may be accelerated, but it is not wise to take a risk.

The smartest property investors know that tax minimization is an important part of their process. You should be intentional not only with what you buy and sell, but also when you buy and sell. This will save you a tremendous amount of money on the back end.

The post How Long Do You Have to Use Capital Gains from a Property Sale to Invest in Another Property Before Paying Tax? appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.

American and Filipino immigration laws allow dual citizenship in some cases. One example would be Filipinos who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces; the Navy is a branch that has attracted many sailors from the Philippines because of the Subic Bay Naval Base, which was in operation until 1992 and served as a recruiting station of sorts. There used to be some apprehension among Filipino sailors who would have lost their birthright citizenship if they chose to become naturalized Americans, but this changed in 2003 with the enactment of Republic Act 9225.

Filipinos Born Abroad

The aforementioned Republic Act observes a couple of legal principles that many countries around the world have incorporated into their legislation: jus soli and jus sanguinis. Let’s say a Filipina born in Mindanao joined the U.S. Navy and later decided to become a naturalized U.S. citizen; under the jus soli principle, this sailor is automatically a citizen of the Philippines by means of birthright, and she merely needs to obtain a copy of her birth certificate from the Philippine Statistics Authority, which has an online service platform known as PSA Serbilis.

With a certified copy of the birth certificate, a Filipino can request national identification documents from a consulate office abroad or from the Bureau of Immigration Office in Manila or its branches across the islands. As of 2018, the fees were $50 for processing and $25 per certification of copies.

The jus sanguinis principle applies to individuals born abroad to Filipino parents, which makes them natural-born Filipinos. In the case of Filipinos born in the U.S., the laws of both countries allow dual citizenship, thus they will not have to worry about losing either one, but the process is a bit more involved than for birthright Filipinos.

Americans Who Wish to Become Filipino Citizens

Foreigners whose nationalities do not meet the jus soli or jus sanguinis principles can become Filipino citizens through the process of naturalization; however, they will have to renounce their previous citizenship. To this effect, not many Americans who do not have Filipino blood ties become naturalized citizens in the Philippines, although there are thousands who choose to live and retire there.

It should be noted that an American who becomes a naturalized Filipino citizen is not automatically off the hook with regard to U.S. obligations, particularly taxes. The proper way to go about cutting ties with the U.S. is through the renunciation process, which is complex and must be handled through the U.S. State Department. Americans who renounce their citizenship are typically very wealthy and have a financial interest in avoiding taxation abroad.

The post How to Obtain Filipino and American Dual Citizenship appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.

Outstanding felony warrants issued by one state jurisdiction can be gleaned by law enforcement officers who obtain the information by means of query made through the National Crime Information Center database. Should an arrest be made, the detention time clock starts ticking and may be considered by a court of the felony state as time served. Even if the state making the arrest does not consider the suspect to be a danger to the community, interstate cooperation agreements create a tacit situation of expected reciprocity, but two states do not adhere to the aforementioned Uniform Act: Missouri and South Carolina.

Length of Out-of-State Detention

If the alleged felony charge was filed by federal prosecutors, the suspect can be transferred to a federal detention facility very quickly; in fact, the county or state jail may already be contracted for this purpose. In this case, the detention time can take as long as needed.

With regard to state felony warrants, it is up to the charging state to process the extradition, and it is generally understood that this can take about 30 days. The state holding the defendant may choose to accept extension requests for the purpose of getting extraditions approved through the courts, but their jurisdictional sovereignty also allows them to refuse extradition, at which point the defendant may be released. This scenario may call for compensation of the costs of keeping out-of-state defendants in custody.

A criminal defense attorney who learns that a client has been waiting more than a month for interstate extradition would certainly petition for a release. The holding state may start to worry about potential liability arising from extended detention of a defendant who has not been charged within the jurisdiction, particularly when the felony offense or defendant’s history do not indicate a risk to the community. Even if the defendant starts fighting the extradition process from the holding state, the staff at the detention facility and the local courts may decide to release for various reasons; in this case, they figure that the defendant can continue to argue against extradition from outside a jail cell.

The post How Long Can a State Hold an Individual With an Out-of-State Felony Warrant? appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.

Employees may expect their employers to cover a portion, if not all, of the cost of healthcare premiums. Under the rules and guidelines of the Affordable Care Act, this is the case for companies with 50 or more employees. Large businesses must provide adequate health insurance plans. They must pay at least 60 percent of the premium. Employees must not be forced to spend more than 9.5 percent of their salary on the premium. With those rules in mind, businesses may decide to pay the 60 percent or slightly less.

These rules only apply to full-time, permanent employees. Individuals who are employed part-time may not be covered by any health insurance plan. The same is true for temporary or seasonal employees.

Another facet to how much an employer should pay for health insurance premiums concerns the need for employers to hire and retain quality employees. Companies that desire to hire the best of the best may decide to pay more of the premium and/or offer higher quality plans. Those that simply need to meet the requirement set forth by the federal government are likely to offer lower level plans with high deductibles.

Companies with under 50 employees are not required by law to provide health insurance coverage for their employees. Still, most employers know that they need to offer some type of health insurance benefit in order to attract qualified applicants to their open positions. These smaller employers have access to the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit, which covers half of the cost of the premium the employer pays. They may also have access to discounted plans through the Affordable Care Act’s SHOP program.

Those looking for hard dollars will learn that there is no set-in-stone price for healthcare coverage. The figures change depending on what percentage of the premium the employer chooses to cover as well as the type of plan. While employers are compelled to pay for 60 percent, most pay much more than that. In fact, most recent figures show that employers pay 83 percent of health insurance premiums, on average. That number drops by about 10 percent when including family plans.

Businesses deciding how much to pay for a health insurance premium should keep in mind that insurance premiums go up almost every year. On average, health insurance costs in the United States increase by about three percent each year. Employers must decide whether to cover those increases or pass them along to the employees. Because the figures changes every year, employers must constantly evaluate and re-evaluate the amount they are willing and able to spend on health insurance.

The post How Much Should an Employer Pay for Employees’ Health Insurance? appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.

Why Look for Free Arrest Records?

There are a number of reasons to seek arrest records. You may have questions about a prospective employee or a personal relationship. You might wish to verify someone’s identity. You may even be curious if your own information is available.

Should You Pay for Arrest Records?

The answer is a simple no. Arrest records are public. It may be faster to pay someone to look up arrest records for you, but it is never necessary. The only cases in which you may not be able to find arrest records are if they have been sealed or thrown out. Otherwise, you can get them for free, often with very little effort.

Can You Find Arrest Records Online?

This answer is a bit more murky. Arrest records are available online in some places though not in others. If you know exactly which state or county an individual lived in when arrested or where they were charged, you can go to that state or county’s websites. Many have arrest record searches available to the public. You will need to know the person’s name. You often need their date of birth as well. Some may even ask for identifiers like last known address or ethnicity. The more information you have, the more likely you will be able to accurately identify the person.

Another option is to use the Federal Bureau of Prisons. This search will not give you all of the information, as it only includes records of those who have been to prison. Many arrests do not end in prison time. Likewise, the Federal Bureau of Prisons only contains information that is voluntarily submitted by county and state prisons.

Are There Other Ways to Find Arrest Records for Free?

You can go directly to a county courthouse to ask for arrest records. You may also do a search of local newspapers if you happen to know the location or rough time frame of the suspected crime. You may also call a state or county system to ask about arrest records, though if these aren’t already online you may be charged a processing fee.

When is it Time to Pay for Arrest Records?

If you have exhausted all of your resources and you are still unable to find an arrest record for free, you may wish to pay a service to look for you. The safest and smartest choice is to run an official criminal background check through your state highway patrol. You will need to have the person’s name and date of birth or social security number. You will receive any public records for a nominal fee while also being certain that your personal information is protected.

The post Looking Up Free Arrest Records appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.

Free online jail inmate locators
You should first understand the difference between jail and prison. Jail is where a person goes when he or she is first arrested. They’ll go through processing, getting their fingerprints taken and going through other identification measures. A person will stay in jail prior to their trial unless they happen to pay a bond. This is much different from prison, where a person will go once they have been convicted and sentenced. If you’re going to use the free online locators, then you should look in the jail in your town rather than the prison in your state.

The jail is almost always run by the local county sheriff’s office. This means that if you are looking for someone who was arrested in Houston, you’d check with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department’s website rather than anything run by the city. Once on those sites, you’ll likely be able to put in the name of the person you are looking for. In many instances, you’ll be required to put in the birthday of inmate, too. If you have this information, the online locator may provide you with the jail location and the inmate’s jail identification number.

Calling the jail
It costs nothing to call your local jail. While you may run into some resistance in trying to get information, many employees who work at the jail will be willing to let you know where a person is located. In some cases, the online locators will only provide you with a location in coded numbers. In many big cities, there are multiple jails, and if you’re not a lawyer, you’ll have no idea what some of those numbers mean. By calling the jail and providing the name of the inmate you are looking for, they can help you figure out precisely where to find them.

Getting help from a bail bonding company
If you are having trouble and you’ll need to bail out your loved one anyway, then enlisting the help of a bail bonding company is never a bad idea. They are professional operators in this space. A good bonding company will be able to quickly find the person you are looking for. They have connections with people at the jail who can give them the rundown on when the person might be arraigned and released. This is a great option if you are not familiar with the jail system and need to get a person out in a hurry. Know that it will cost money to bail a person out, but a bonding company may help you locate them for free.

The post How to Find a Person in Jail for Free appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.

The test depends on your policy amount
As with most things, the more money you stand to collect, the more scrutiny you will be subjected to. A policy with a high face value amount would almost certainly lead to more screening. You may have to do a blood test or even a hair exam, which would look for evidence of drug use from a much longer prior period. Most of these drug tests will be designed to find a variety of drugs. Urinalysis can detect marijuana that you smoked or ingested over a month-long period. Hair tests are known to detect marijuana over a much longer period. The extent of your testing, both in terms of duration and drugs taken, will depend on how big the policy happens to be.

A broad range of potential drug substances
A standard person applying for a life insurance policy can expect to be subjected to a urine exam during the course of the routine medical exam that goes along with the screening. Companies want to know if you are in good health, so you will need to go through a sometime thorough examination. With this in mind, the standard urine test taken during a medical exam will turn up a number of substances, including marijuana, various opiates, power or crack cocaine, amphetamines, and even barbiturates. This covers a wide swath of potential drugs.

That drug test is just the first. If yours comes back clean, then you will be off the hook for further testing. If yours comes back with a positive result, then you will be subjected to a second test. This subsequent test is designed to confirm the first test. Most insurance companies will simply deny your policy if you happen to have a positive confirmatory test. In some cases, you may be able to negotiate for a higher premium as a result. Many companies are not willing to take the risk of insuring a person who uses drugs, however.

In many cases, you will end up with a positive test for prescription drugs. Things like painkilling medications can end up on the test. If you happen to get a positive hit for these drugs, you’ll need to produce documentation that you have a prescription for the drugs. On top of that, you may end up with a higher premium rate as a result of nicotine found in your body. This confirms that you smoke or otherwise use potentially risky substances, raising the potential liability for the insurance provider.

The post What Drugs Do Life Insurance Companies Test For? appeared first on Encyclopedia.com.