New employer tax credit for family and medical leave

One great way to attract and retain outstanding employees is to provide them with valuable benefits.

Now, thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, you can take advantage of a new federal income-tax credit that rewards you for providing paid family and medical leave benefits to your employees.

That’s right. If you act promptly, you can get a dollar-for-dollar offset to your taxes for helping your people in a major way.

To find out how to put the law to work for you and your employees, read my new article titled Tax Tips: Claiming the New Employer Tax Credit for Family and Medical Leave.

Three ways our fact-filled article can help you:

1. We’ll tell you what “qualifying family and medical leave” means. For the purpose of qualifying for the credit, family and medical leave is defined as leave taken by a qualified employee for any of six reasons. You’ll learn what they are when you read the full after-tax-reform article.
2. We’ll explain family and medical leave credit basics. Eligible employees, who are on family and medical leave, can claim a credit equal to 12.5-percent of wages, as long as the leave-payments are at least 50-percent of the normal wages paid to them. We’ll explain the new law in detail when you read the full after-tax-reform article.
3. You’ll learn when your company’s family and medical leave policy must be established. The general rule is that in order to claim the credit for your company’s first tax year (that begins after December 31, 2017), your written family and medical leave policy must be in place before the leave for which the credit will be claimed. There’s a lot more on this subject you should know, including how to qualify for the credit retroactively for all of 2018. We’ll give you the whole story when you read the full article.