County Allowance
The County of Alameda (County) provides you with dollars (commonly known as “Employer Credits” or “County Allowance”) to purchase pre-tax benefits such as Medical, Vision, Supplemental Employee Life and AD&D. The Employer Credit is applied to the pre-tax premiums. In addition, certain groups may use the Employer Credit for Health Care, Dependent Care and Adoption Assistance Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA).
To determine if you are eligible to receive any Employer Credit, please refer to the Appendices in the Employee Benefits Handbook, your Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) or Salary Ordinance.
Effective January 1, 2014, IRS Notice 2013-54 imposed certain limitations on the amount of remaining Employer Credits that can go into the Health Care FSA. This impacts the amount of County Allowance that is remaining after the pre-tax benefit premiums have been deducted.
- If you have a minimum of $30 up to $500.00 remaining from your Employer Credit, this amount will default into the Health FSA. Any remaining employer credit less than $30 will be cash out to you after-tax on a semi-monthly basis.
- If you have more than $500.00 of your Employer Credit remaining after you make your pre-tax benefit elections, this IRS change impacts you. If the employee’s salary contribution into the Health Care FSA is greater than $500.00 up to $3,200.00, then the County Allowance credit would match the employee’s salary contribution not to exceed the total Health Care FSA combined (salary contribution + employer credit) amount of $3,200.00.
After all elected benefits have been made for the applicable flexible spending accounts and if there is any unallocated County Allowance money remaining, the remaining balance will be cashed out to the employee after-tax on a semi-monthly basis.
Please refer to the Employee Benefits Handbook for examples of how this works. You can also view a brief video on the County Allowance in the Employee Benefits Showcase by clicking Here. If you still have questions, please call the EBC.