Do the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) special enrollment rules apply to this situation?
No. An employee who declined coverage because he or she had other coverage has the right to special enrollment under HIPAA only if the employee: • loses the other coverage (or exhausts COBRA coverage); • marries (at which time the spouse may also be enrolled); or • acquires a new dependent by virtue of birth or adoption (employee, spouse and child may enroll). HIPAA does not require special enrollment when there has merely been a change in coverage. Q: I am a sole proprietor and would like to hire my teenage kids to do some work around the office. Are there any tax advantages to hiring them? A: Possibly. Make sure you compensate them in a reasonable manner for the services they perform. If your children do photocopying, for example, pay them the going rate for that service. The salary you pay your children would be a tax-deductible business expense, and their income would be tax-free up to that year’s standard deduction for a single taxpayer. Any income the children earn in excess of t
