These updated FAQs were released to the public in Fact Sheet 2022-16 PDF , March 3, 2022.
Note that the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, enacted March 11, 2021, amended and extended the tax credits (and the availability of advance payments of the tax credits) for paid sick and family leave for wages paid with respect to the period beginning April 1, 2021, and ending on September 30, 2021. These FAQs do not currently reflect the changes made by the American Rescue Plan Act; however, please continue to check IRS.gov for any updates related to the change in law.
“Qualified health plan expenses” are amounts paid or incurred by the Eligible Employer to provide and maintain a group health plan (as defined in section 5000(b)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”)), but only to the extent that those amounts are excluded from the gross income of employees by reason of section 106(a) of the Code.
Generally, the tax credits for qualified sick leave wages and qualified family leave wages are increased by the qualified health plan expenses allocable to each type of qualified leave wages. Qualified health plan expenses are properly allocated to the qualified sick or family leave wages if the allocation is made on a pro rata basis among covered employees (for example, the average premium for all employees covered by a policy) and pro rata on the basis of periods of coverage (relative to the time periods of leave to which such wages relate).
The amount of qualified health plan expenses taken into account in determining the credits generally includes both the portion of the cost paid by the Eligible Employer and the portion of the cost paid by the employee with pre-tax salary reduction contributions. However, the qualified health plan expenses should not include amounts that the employee paid for with after-tax contributions.
The qualified health plan expenses are determined separately for each plan. Therefore, for each plan, those expenses are allocated to the employees who participate in that plan. In the case of an employee who participates in more than one plan, the allocated expenses of each plan in which the employee participates are aggregated for that employee.
An Eligible Employer who sponsors a fully-insured group health plan may use any reasonable method to determine and allocate the plan expenses, including (1) the COBRA applicable premium for the employee typically available from the insurer, (2) one average premium rate for all employees, or (3) a substantially similar method that takes into account the average premium rate determined separately for employees with self-only and other than self-only coverage.
If an Eligible Employer chooses to use one average premium rate for all employees, the allocable amount for each day an employee covered by the insured group health plan is entitled to qualified leave wages could be determined using the following steps:
Example: An Eligible Employer sponsors an insured group health plan that covers 400 employees, some with self-only coverage and some with family coverage. Each employee is expected to have 260 work days a year. (Five days a week for 52 weeks.) The employees contribute a portion of their premium by pre-tax salary reduction, with different amounts for self-only and family. The total annual premium for the 400 employees is $5.2 million. (This includes both the amount paid by the Eligible Employer and the amounts paid by employees through salary reduction.)
For an Eligible Employer using one average premium rate for all employees, the average annual premium rate is $5.2 million divided by 400, or $13,000. For each employee expected to have 260 work days a year, this results in a daily average premium rate equal to $13,000 divided by 260, or $50. That $50 is the amount of qualified health expenses allocated to each day of paid sick or family leave per employee.
An Eligible Employer who sponsors a self-insured group health plan may use any reasonable method to determine and allocate the qualified health plan expenses, including (1) the COBRA applicable premium for the employee typically available from the administrator, or (2) any reasonable actuarial method to determine the estimated annual expenses of the plan.
If the Eligible Employer uses a reasonable actuarial method to determine the estimated annual expenses of the plan, then rules similar to the rules for insured plans are used to determine the amount of expenses allocated to an employee. That is, the estimated annual expense is divided by the number of employees covered by the plan, and that amount is divided by the average number of work days during the year by the employees (treating days of paid leave as work days and any day on which an employee performs any work as work days). The resulting amount is the amount allocated to each day of qualified sick or family leave wages.
The amount of qualified health plan expenses does not include Eligible Employer contributions to HSAs or Archer MSAs. Eligible Employers who sponsor an HDHP should calculate the amount of qualified health plan expenses in the same manner as an insured group health plan, or a self-insured plan, as applicable.
The amount of qualified health plan expenses may include contributions to an HRA (including an individual coverage HRA), or a health FSA, but does not include contributions to a QSEHRA. To allocate contributions to an HRA or a health FSA, Eligible Employers should use the amount of contributions made on behalf of the particular employee.