I Want to take you H.I.R.E.

July 22, 2010 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed

Those kings of acronyms, the United States government, have done it again.  The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) act makes it possible for dental practices who hire new employees to claim a credit for those new hires.  But, as always, for all things that sound too good to be true there are some criteria that must be followed to allow the dental practice to claim the credit on its tax return.

First any dentist with a practice in the United States or US territories will qualify.  Any new dental assistant, dental hygienist or administrative employee hired must have worked less than 40 hours in the previous 60 days prior to the hire date.  The qualified employee must certify the above by signing an affidavit, Form W-11.  By now those little turbines in your head are probably furiously turning figuring which family member you can hire or which dental assistant you can fire so you can hire someone new and claim this credit.  Unfortunately the writers of the bill were thinking the same thing so they specified that the employee cannot be a family member or other relative and the new employee must only replace an employee who left voluntarily or for cause.

The new qualified dental employee must be hired after February 3, 2010.  Upon hire the dentist retains the employer portion of the 6.2% Social Security tax with each payroll processing until December 31, 2010.  But wait there’s more.  If the qualifying dental employee(s) remains employed for 52 consecutive weeks from the date of hire the dentist receives a $1,000 credit per employee as long as the individual’s wages during the last twenty-six weeks are at least eighty percent of the wages paid during the first twenty-six weeks.

This is a great opportunity for dentists to hire unemployed workers and reap the possible benefit of two tax credits.  Your payroll service or CPA can be help advise you in this matter.

Questions for Larry?

larry.goldberg@glassjacobson.com