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Benefits January 3, 2011
Facebook Joins Employers Extending Domestic Partner Tax Benefit
January 3, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The Facebook social media giant is the latest in a string of employers to cover the extra taxes imposed on gay employees with domestic partners for the value of their partners’ employer-provided health coverage.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
A New York Times blog said Facebook joins Bain & Company, Google and Barclays bank in making the move; the Times said Boston Consulting is expected to likewise adopt the tax reimbursement policy (see Barclays to Cover Gay Employee Health Benefits Tax ) A handful of other large organizations, including Cisco, Kimpton Hotels and the Gates Foundation also cover these costs.
“This is a simple matter of fairness,” Russ Hagey, a Bain senior partner and the firm’s chief talent officer, told the Times.
According to the Times blog, without such reimbursement, employees with domestic partners will pay about $1,069 more a year in taxes, on average, than a married employee with the same coverage.
Bain said its employees would receive a lump sum reimbursement at the end of each year, essentially a separate line item to cover the taxes. A spokesman for Facebook told the newspaper that employees’ W-2 forms would be adjusted so that they wouldn’t have to pay for the extra tax.