http://online.wsj.com | By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN
“The end of the presidential election brings greater certainty to many small-business owners in critical areas from health-care policy to taxes. Here’s a look at what President Barack Obama’s re-election might mean for them:
Health Care
One campaign issue that business owners likely no longer need to question is the fate of the health-care overhaul.
Mr. Obama pledged to keep it intact. But this means that owners with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees will be required starting in 2014 to provide their workforces with health-insurance benefits or pay a penalty. Also under the law, upper-income households will be taxed an additional 3.8 percentage points on their investment incomes beginning Jan. 1.
For Jesse LaFlamme, co-owner of Pete & Gerry’s Organics LLC, an egg-farm business in Monroe, N.H., the election results confirm that he will need to start providing health insurance to all of his 50 employees, and not just managers, as is currently the case. “We know what we now have to do going ahead,” he says.”