Tax Incentives For Employee Wellness Programs

Wellness program incentives best practices.

Tax incentives for employee wellness programs.

A wellness program is a workplace program intended to improve and promote health and fitness in which an employer typically offers premium discounts cash rewards gym memberships or other incentives to participate. To boost engagement most employers offer some sort of incentive to employees for participation. For wellness programs that are not subject to the ada or gina see examples above an employer could still offer incentives penalties of 30 or more in some cases e g 50 for tobacco cessation programs that do not test for the presence of nicotine or unlimited amounts for programs that only require participation but not attainment of a. People also ask these wellness questions.

Wellness program incentives help employees adopt and maintain healthy behaviors for the rest of their lives. Incentives are generally subject to tax unless 1 given as a premium credit 2 deposited into an fsa hsa hra or 3 are prizes of nominal value e g pens or t shirts. It seems like a question that s not worth asking. All incentives offered through a wellness program should be reviewed for tax purposes.

While there is controversy about wellness incentives and if they actually work 75 of wellness programs do include incentives to encourage participation. In most cases unless motivated most employees will have a hard time making healthy lifestyle changes. Wellness program includes a reimbursement of all or a portion of the required employee contribution for the wellness plan that the employee made through salary reduction. The benefits of workplace wellness programs are endless.

States including massachusetts indiana and mississippi have considered or implemented tax credits to incentivize small businesses to provide employee wellness programs. Wellness program incentives are a small part of wellness. Not only is it useful for attracting top talent but healthier employees inevitably lead to lower medical claims costs which leads to lower medical premiums which leads to a better profit margin. Achieving behavior change with wellness incentives.

If you offer employees wellness programs such as fitness centers nutrition counselling and stress reduction and you charge little or nothing or even offer financial incentives surely it will improve the participants health. This is where incentives can help. Wellness programs can be tax free to an employee. Employee wellness programs incentives.

Small business owners may be able to take advantage of tax incentives for workplace wellness programs.