Union Health & Welfare

[indyscott]

Are Union members contributions to the Union's Health & Welfare fund deductible?

[Jerry W]

Are Union members contributions to the Union's Health & Welfare fund deductible?

My guess is that it depends on the organization's tax exempt status and whether the 501© section permits deduction. I took a look at Guidestar and could not find "Union's Health & Welfare fund". That seems like a generic name. There are several union organizations that have health & welfare funds. If you can be more specific with the name, I can check further.

Jerry W

[BulldogTom]

Those are normally paid by the employer. Are you sure they made the contributions themselves? IF so, then there is a portion that is health insurance for schedule A.

tom

Nashville, TN (for 2 more days)

[Jerry W]

My guess is that it depends on the organization's tax exempt status and whether the 501© section permits deduction. I took a look at Guidestar and could not find "Union's Health & Welfare fund". That seems like a generic name. There are several union organizations that have health & welfare funds. If you can be more specific with the name, I can check further.

Jerry W

I took another look and found that most on the union health & welfare funds are 501©(9) organizations in which case contributions are not tax deductible. Hope this helps.

Jerry W

[indyscott]

These are deductions from the employee's pay. I'm getting it from his year end paycheck stub, just below the union dues dedution. Tom's reply to treat them like health insurance on Sch A sounds most reasonable to me, but I'd just like to find a solid foundation for the deduction, and not miss getting them deductible, if it's appropriate. As medical deduction they won't get over the 7.5%, but if they're somehow includeable in the Misc Deductions along with union dues they will get over the 2%.

[indyscott]

Jerry, the union's health & welfare fund probably is a 501 c 9 entity, but I think it is analogous to a private health insurance company. The fund receives money from the employer, and in this case from the employee, and the employee's contributions are akin to an employee's share of health insurance.

What confuses it somewhat is that the H&W fund provides not only Health Insurance, but also ST Disablilty coverage, and life insurance benefits. That's the "W" part of it.

It still looks like a Sch A Medical deduction to me.