www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | NOVEMBER 2015 23
The topic of the excise tax took cen-
ter stage at ECFC's Annual Conference
in March, the ECFC Fly-In congressional
event in June and again at ECFC's 28th
Annual Administrators' Symposium in
August. These events have been key in
bringing together industry experts in
healthcare legislation and Affordable Care
Act (ACA) compliance to promote and
protect consumer directed health plans.
The excise tax is designed to fill the
$87 billion budget hole created by the
ACA and is one of the last provisions
of the ACA to be implemented. As pro-
posed, a 40% excise tax would be levied
on company provided health benefits and
related perks valued at more than $10,200
for singles and $27,500 for families.
While it's not scheduled to take effect
until Jan. 1, 2018, companies are analyz-
ing the impact and making decisions now
as they plan employee benefits for the
coming years.
"It just doesn't make sense for hard-
working Americans to now be penalized
for trying to set aside money to pay for
their healthcare," Sweetnam said. "ECFC
is committed to getting this legislation
changed so that consumer directed plans,
such as HSAs, HRAs and FSAs are carved
out from this tax."
If not revised, at least 48% of employ-
ers are expected to trigger the excise tax in
2018; 82% could be subject to it by 2023,
making the excise Tax the rule rather
than the exception.
HOME AUTOMATION MARKET
PROJECTED TO EXPAND
Transparency Market Research has an-
nounced the release of a report titled
"Home Automation Market—Global
Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth,
Trends and Forecast 2014–2020." The
global home automation market was es-
timated at US$4.4 bn in 2013 and is an-
ticipated to reach US$21.6 bn by 2020,
expanding at a remarkable CAGR of
26.30% between 2014 and 2020.
Geographically, the market is seg-
mented into Europe, North America,
Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World
(RoW). In 2014, North America domi-
nated the home automation market and
is predicted to maintain its superiority
all through 2020. This is because of the
technological advancement in countries
such as Canada and the U.S. Asia Pacific
and Europe trailed North America and
together accounted for over 40% of the
global market.
The key players dominant in the mar-
ket include Control4 Corporation, ADT
Corporation, AMX LLC, Johnson Con-
trols, and Siemens AG, among others.
