Bonus: Breaking news episode!

The Supreme Court of the USA has ruled on the Affordable Care Act and Same sex Marriage.

Tune in and get the bonus information! You heard it here first.

Employers will have some homework effective TODAY!

Here are some cool and helpful links!

Supreme Court Ruling on ACA

Supreme Court Ruling on Same-sex Marriage

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Listen to Small Business Spoonfuls below:

Transcript

BONUS: SUPREME COURT ON ACA AND SAME SEX MARRIAGE

Small Business Spoonfuls is a twice a week Q&A with Lisa Smith, providing the answers to questions you have about running your

Welcome to another edition of Small Business Spoonfuls. I am Lisa Smith and I am here today with a bonus episode. We are normally

only publishing our podcast twice a week, but the Supreme Court has been super busy this week and I am here to bring you some

breaking news. Yesterday was June 25th and the Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act upholding the tenants of the

Affordable Care Act and continuing funding to the federal agency exchanges and so forth.

This also means that upheld was the Play or Pay penalties for employers. Everything from now forward is business as usual per the

ACA for employers. We know this impacts employers with 50 or more employees. If you have more than a 100 employees, your

penalties can get ramped up even higher if you don t follow the ACA with reporting guidelines and so forth. Also, we know that over

250 W-2s going out every year would require you to have certain reporting guidelines on the W-2 in box 12 for that total amount of

health insurance. That is still in there for large employers.

If you are an employer with 50 or more employees, you are required to follow the Affordable Care Act and offer a minimum coverage at

a reasonable price and you will need to go look up all of that information on the ACA. We don t have time to cover that whole in detail

today, but definitely know that is still intact. That was the Supreme Court ruling from yesterday.

Now transitioning over into the bigger breaking news was just issued about an hour or so ago and that is that the Supreme Court has

delivered their ruling on same sex marriage and they have recognized the marriage between same sex couples as legal federally and

they are requiring that all states also grant privileges of marriage and benefits under employment arrangement and any other type of

arrangement that talks about a spouse or a marriage, that same sex marriage be also included in that definition.

Some states are going to be asking, we have a ban on it in our state, so we don t have to do this, right, because the state overrules the

feds if we put a ban on something? No. That is not how this works. When the Supreme Court rules on this level, then it becomes law

in the entire United States. Employers, if you do not already have policies in place that allow your benefits and equal privileges to same

sex marriages as well as your opposite sex marriages, then you will need to rewrite those policies and put those procedures in place

and get your staff retrained immediately. This is not a choice, this is not up to company policy, and this is not up to state law.

This is federal law effective immediately. Breaking news very important going to affect a lot of employers out there small and large,

because this is defining who has a spouse. Now that being said, a same sex couple cohabitating is not what this definition is. These

folks will go down to the courthouse and will get legally married just like opposite sex couples have been doing for years. Now they will

be legally married and they will qualify for those protections that spouses get under federal laws.

That is a very key thing to remember. Make sure we are talking about a legal marriage and treat everybody the same. If someone was

married in a state that previously recognized same sex marriage and your state did not, that marriage is legal in all 50 states and must

be recognized by every state regardless of ban.

Alright, there is some breaking news for you. There is some homework for you as well. Get out there and rewrite those policies and

procedures and make sure that you understand that failing to follow the Supreme Court ruling can and will lead to serious fines,

Have a great weekend. It s Friday. I m going to head out of here. I m Lisa Smith. Be audit secure.