Welcome to MRHA....

MRHA is composed of owners who are interested in improving their business to ensure both a profitable and meaningful future in hardware retailing.  To help achieve these goals, MRHA offers a variety of products and services which can be used to help make your business more efficient, more profitable and more in demand than ever before.

MRHA Mission Statement...

MRHA is an association of independent retailers whose purpose is to aggressively provide state-of-the-art services and information to help grow its members' business.

Hot News - - -

Small Business Cringes At Health Care Reform Implications

The federal health care reform legislation did small businesses a bad turn in the eyes of those organizations in Michigan representing them.

Scott LYONS, vice president of small business services for the Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM), says his organization opposed the health care legislation.

Businesses of 25 employees or fewer don't have to provide health insurance. But if they have a certain number of workers who make less than $50,000 per year or less than $25,000 per year for businesses with 10 or fewer employees, new rules come into play.

The legislation gives these businesses the incentive of a "scaled" tax credit of up to 35 percent of the employer contribution until 2013. Businesses of 10 or fewer people making under $25,000 are guaranteed the full 35 percent government contribution.

From 2014 to 2016, these businesses will get a 50 percent tax credit for employer contributions. But after that, it's cut off cold turkey. For some that smacks more of sticks than carrots.

"After 2016 it's a hard stop, there are no tax credits provided at that point," said Ed WOLKING of the Detroit Regional Chamber. He said that makes getting health insurance a tough decision for small employers.

Charles [OWENS], Michigan state director of National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), said his organization has some of the same concerns, mainly that the conditions of these tax credits are too restrictive and the availability of the credit is too short.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, very small businesses are the ones the government should be offering incentives to. While 97 percent of businesses nationally have fewer than 50 employees, it's the smallest ones that are insuring at the lowest rates. Only 46 percent of businesses with three to nine employees currently provide health insurance.

So it makes sense that the full 35 percent is targeted toward businesses with under 10 employees, but it also leaves a hole in the thresholds. Businesses that employ between 26 and 49 employees don't get any incentives.

But in 2014, states will begin offering affordable public health care through "exchanges" that will be available to those at 400 percent of the poverty level.

Wolking is afraid this exchange will make employers with less than 50 employees not want to provide health insurance, since it's not mandated and they know their workers have an affordable option. They could pay their workers slightly more instead of privately insuring them, or just cut their health insurance programs altogether.

"There's an interesting play here too for employers who do offer coverage and won't be required to offer coverage in the future," said Wolking.

And overall, with that 2016 cut-off of all government aid looming overhead, business leaders aren't sure this is going to persuade anybody to start offering health insurance.

"We don't think that the incentive is there," said Lyons.

Bigger Businesses Required To Provide Health Care

At 50 employees, businesses must either provide health insurance or pay a $2,000-per-employee fine excepting the first 30 employees if even one employee receives a premium tax credit for health care. If they do provide a health care option and employees are still opting for the tax credit, they must pay $2,000 per employee or $3,000 per person receiving the tax credit, whichever is less.

Either way, it's a lot of paperwork.

"It's certainly a consideration. If you've got a growing business and you're adding volume and suddenly you're at 49 . . . then you might rethink about whether you want to add that 50th position or not," Wolking said.

And this isn't the only thing employers have to worry about on the administrative end. For some, all this adds up to lots of math.

According to Lyons, employers have to offer "free choice" vouchers to their employees who wish to seek insurance publicly, but it's a big equation. To qualify, employees must be under 400 percent of the poverty level and the premium has to be over eight percent of their income but under 9.8 percent of household income.

It's a lot of that information employers just don't have, and relying on self-reporting for things like household income could land them big fines if they're inaccurate.

Both Lyons and Wolking say that businesses know these changes are coming through the pipes, especially if they're part of a group. But there are still unexpected things coming at them.

"There's lots of things out there that are going to hit that I think most small employers aren't up on the details of," Lyons said. And he said part of that is that everybody is scrambling to figure out the details, but some just aren't known.

But details aside, Lyons said the bill isn't a wholehearted solution to businesses who want to offer health care.

"This doesn't get at the root of the problem that small businesses and everybody in America has a problem with, which is that it costs too much," Lyons said.

Noel LaPorte

Complying with the Red Flags Rule:

The Red Flags Rule requires many businesses and organizations to implement a written identity Theft Prevention Program to detect the warning signs - or "red flags" - of identity theft in their day-to-day operations.  By focusing on red flags now, you'll be better able to spot an imposter using someone else's identity to get products or services from you.  As a practical matter, the Rule applies to you if you provide products or services and bill customers later.  To find out if the Red Flags Rule applies to your business, read Fighting Fraud with the Red Flags Rule: A How-to Guide for Businesses, at www.ftc.gov/redflagsrule.

The follow PDF file contains a do-it-yourself Prevention Program for Businesses and Organizations at Low Risk for Identity Theft.

RedFlags_forLowRiskBusinesses.pdf

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Michigan Hardware Retailer
Your copy of the publication is now available on-line.

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Homeland Security Issues New Rules to Tighten Employers’ Liability for Employment Verification

The New I-9 Form is Now Available
A PDF version of the form along with detailed instructions is available for download at the following site:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf

Michigan Retail Hardware Association
4414 S. Pennsylvania Ave.
Lansing, MI  48910
Phone = 866-394-1710
Fax = 517-394-1782