About 78 percent of Nevada small businesses will qualify for a health insurance tax credit under the new health care overhaul signed into law in March.
That's according to a new study released Thursday by Families USA, a non-partisan Washington-based health care research firm.
The tax credit aims to help small businesses with 25 or fewer employees who earn on average less than $50,000 pay for health insurance. The maximum value of the tax credit is 35 percent of the employer's costs for employee coverage and up to 25 percent for nonprofit employers.
The smaller the firm the greater the tax credit. For example, the smallest businesses with 10 or fewer employees working at an average wage of less than $25,000 can get the full 35 percent tax credit.
Starting in the 2010 tax year, businesses that cover 50 percent of each employee's health insurance premiums qualify.
Also, the tax credits will grow to 50 percent by 2014 once the planned state health insurance exchanges are running.
Of Nevada's 38,100 small business with 25 or fewer employees, 29,600 will qualify for the tax credit, according to Families USA.
Nationally 83.7 percent of small businesses - or about four million - will qualify. In 11 states more than 90 percent of businesses will qualify for the tax credit.