# Is Health Insurance Tax Deductible For Businesses?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-health-insurance-tax-deductible-for-businesses/372387>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 12, 2006, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-health-insurance-tax-deductible-for-businesses/372387 "2006-09-12T11:03:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shecky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shecky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shecky)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-health-insurance-tax-deductible-for-businesses/372387/1 "2006-09-12T11:03:24Z")

</div>

Ok, at my second job, the office staff is attempting to persuade the boss to provide health care or whatever it would cost as a bonus to our paychecks. While we’re trying to come up with good reasons, I was wondering if anybody knew if it was tax-deductible for the employer.  
We’re a small company in NJ, and coverage would be for about 6 employees.

Thank You

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-health-insurance-tax-deductible-for-businesses/372387/2 "2006-09-12T13:18:47Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Shecky]  
Ok, at my second job, the office staff is attempting to persuade the boss to provide health care or whatever it would cost as a bonus to our paychecks. While we’re trying to come up with good reasons, I was wondering if anybody knew if it was tax-deductible for the employer.  
[/QUOTE]  
Yes. At the risk of over-simplifying a complex subject:

Employer pays = tax-deductible for employer, tax-free for you

Employer raises your pay, you buy insurance = tax-dedudtible for employer, but taxable income for you