A new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposal would make it easier for employers to determine if their health-care plans are affordable and exempt from a stiff financial penalty mandated by the health-care reform law, Business Insurance reported.

Under a provision of the law scheduled to take effect in 2014, employers are liable for an annual $3,000-per-employee penalty for employees whose required health insurance premium for single coverage exceeds 9.5 percent of family income, and the employees are eligible for federal premium subsidies to buy coverage through state insurance exchanges.

The IRS is asking for public comment on a proposed safe harbor, or a statute that limits liability, in which coverage would be considered affordable as long as the premium contribution did not exceed 9.5 percent of an employee’s W-2 wages. 

“By allowing employers to base their affordability calculations on each employee’s W-2 wages (which employers know) instead of each employee’s household income (which employers generally would not know), the safe harbor could provide a more workable and practical method for measuring the affordability of an employer’s coverage,” the IRS said in a notice.

“This will work very well for employers. It is a real positive for employers,” said Rich Stover, principal with Buck Consultants LLC, in an interview with Business Insurance.