Employing the Spouse to Qualify for Medical Benefits

Abstract

<p>Attempts to qualify a spouse as an employee in a husband-wife farming operation for family medical benefits go back decades.<strong>1 </strong>The battle is likely not over even with a favorable taxpayer decision by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2011.<strong>2 </strong>That decision only binds the Internal Revenue Service in the Tenth Circuit area (six states – Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming). Tax Court decisions issued over the years provide “substantial authority”<strong>3 </strong>to the contrary elsewhere in the United States.<strong>4</strong></p>