Dear Colleague, Please join the National Research and Training Center for Personal Assistance Services (PAS Center) on Friday, December 16, 2011, for a free webinar entitled Federal Tax Provisions that Help Meet the Costs of Home and Community-based Care.

Steve Mendelsohn from the Burton Blatt Institute will discuss the over half dozen federal income tax law provisions that can be used to help meet the costs of remaining in one's home and community as an alternative to nursing home. These include individual income tax deductions and credits, and taxing subsidized fringe benefits of employment. Learn about these provisions, about how and when they apply, and about whether any of them can be of benefit to you or your family.

The 60-minute webinar will begin at 2.00pm Eastern; 1:00pm Central; noon Mountain; 11:00am Pacific; 10:00am Alaska and 8:00am Hawaii.

There is no fee and no pre-registration for this webinar, which is open to everyone. An archive of this webinar will be available at a later date.

To join the Webinar on that date, please click here.

It is recommended that you visit this link a few minutes beforehand, as the Webinar software (Elluminate) needs to be downloaded to your computer, which can take a few minutes.

First time user support is available here.  This covers downloading and installing the required software and testing your connection.

Free online training is available here.

The audio of the conference can also be accessed by phone at 1-800-625-5918, passcode 7023043. 

About the Presenter:

Steven Mendelsohn, JD, advocate and author, is recognized as one of the nation's leading experts on the intersection of tax law and disability. He has extensive experience analyzing and explaining the role of tax law in the lives of people with disabilities, and in providing technical assistance and guidance in the use of tax laws to enhance the autonomy and economic independence of people with disabilities and their families. He is the author of many educational articles and research papers, including the groundbreaking book Tax Options and Strategies for People with Disabilities. Currently, under the auspices of a project jointly sponsored by the UCSF PAS Center and Syracuse University's Burton Blatt Institute (BBI), he studies the economics of PAS and the role that tax laws have and can play in affecting reimbursement rates for PAS and in determining the net cost to consumers of various kinds of long-term care. While our nation awaits reform of the Medicaid long-term care benefit and of private long-term care insurance programs, he believes it is essential for people to be informed about the strategies that are available to them for making home and community-based care as affordable as possible, and for reducing the disparity between the funding available for such care and for nursing home placement.

For more information about the Center on Personal Assistance Services webinars, click here.

Lewis Kraus, Director of Training and Dissemination, Center for Personal Assistance Services - UCSF, (510) 285-5600