What is a Cafeteria Plan?

Similar to picking the food items you want to eat when you go to a cafeteria, Reliant’s Cafeteria Plan allows employees to choose three optional benefits. When you submit your annual Cafeteria Enrollment Form, you authorize Reliant to make the deduction(s) from your monthly paycheck for that year. These benefits must be renewed each year during Open Enrollment. Failure to re-enroll during Open Enrollment means you will lose the opportunity to utilize the benefit for the following year. Reliant offers a Cafeteria Plan primarily for the tax free benefits it affords our employees. 

• The payment for any benefit chosen in the Cafeteria Plan will be deducted each month from your paycheck. 

• You will see these payments are in the “pre-tax” category on your monthly pay stub. 

• Neither Federal Income Tax nor FICA Tax are deducted on your Cafeteria Plan benefit that you choose. 

• No employer FICA matching portion comes out of the MTD account you’re responsible for for the value of your Cafeteria Plan Elections.

What is available on the Cafeteria Plan?

1. Health Savings Account (HSA) - Employee Contribution
   • See HSA - Health Savings Account for more information. Employees can make changes to employee contribution through the cafeteria form. 
2. Vision Plan Benefit
   • Vision premiums are paid for by you, the employee, out of your monthly paycheck. See also Vision Insurance. Employees can only elect to participate in the Vision benefit during Open Enrollment or when they are hired,
3. Child-Care Benefit
   • With the Child-Care Benefit, employees submit child-care expenses for reimbursement from the tax-free employee contributions set aside from their monthly paychecks. This enables you to pay for your child-care expenses tax-free! For a full description of the Child-Care Benefit, see Child-Care Benefit and Reliant Dependent Care Assistance Plan. If you desire to elect the Child-Care Benefit, you will need to also enroll in the cafeteria plan to sign up for your Child-Care Benefit Employee Contribution. Employees can only elect to participate in the child-care benefit during Open Enrollment or when they are hired or become benefits eligible.

Governed by the IRS

A "Cafeteria Plan" is a concept that is made possible by IRS regulations. They allow certain deductions to be made in pre-tax manner. Please be aware that the IRS also sets maximums for the allowed benefits. Also, these benefits may need to be documented or reported with your annual tax return. 

Cafeteria Plan elections are submitted as part of the hire or annual Open Enrollment processes. Annual elections made outside of Reliant's Open Enrollment period are subject for review and may be deemed ineligible if they are submitted past the payroll changes deadline (usually by December 20th, to be effective starting January 1st). 

Who needs to submit a cafeteria plan form?

All field workers enrolling in Guidestone medical insurance or EyeMed vision insurance plan need to review the section below regarding the cafeteria plan. During Open Enrollment, these selections are integrated into the open enrollment form. If you have need to enroll in or change your HSA contribution mid-year, you can submit your cafeteria plan options using the current year cafeteria plan throughout the year. New Hires are also eligible to submit a Cafeteria Plan form that will be effective from their date of hire, beginning with their first paycheck.

Things to keep in mind

• The benefits offered on the Cafeteria Plan have to be elected by you each year. They DO NOT automatically roll over into the next year. You must submit a NEW Cafeteria Form EVERY YEAR. 

• So even if you are planning to continue your participation in these benefits in the same manner as the previous year, a new selection must be made EACH YEAR during Open Enrollment. 

• The contributions selected for Vision and Child Care Benefit will be applied to paychecks for the entire year or dates of employment for the year. 

• A status change that changes a employee's benefits eligibility is allowable as a qualifying event to add or drop vision coverage.  

• Benefits eligible employees may make, change, or revoke HSA salary reduction elections at any time during the plan year.

To take advantage of Reliant's Cafeteria Plan, you can choose ANY one of the three options. You do not need to be enrolled in all three. However, the HSA election is only available to employees that are benefits eligible with Reliant and have elected Reliant's medical insurance.

To Enroll

Use the following link to enroll in the cafeteria plan:

• Cafeteria Plan Enrollment Form

Resources

• Reliant Cafeteria Plan- Adoption Agreement 2020.pdf
• Cafeteria Plan - Master Plan Document
• HSA - Health Savings Account
• Vision Insurance