This is in Texas and we are a church.  The pastor has a contract that says that the church will pay for health insurance for him and his family.  The pastor's wife turned 65 this year and is eligible for Medicare.  We have agreed to pay her premiums for whatever parts A,B,C,D,... will give her the equivalent insurance to what she had before.   

We can not get a straight answer from anyone we talk to at the IRS as to whether this is taxable income.  On one hand, we've been providing insurance for her for 20 years and those premiums have not been taxable.  So why should that change?  On the other hand, now, instead of us paying the company directly, she is documenting her Medicare expenses and we are reimbursing her.   We've called the IRS several times, but we always get the lowest level peon who is either non-committal, or is "pretty sure" or has such bad grammar that we don't trust the answer.  

So in sum, I guess the question is:  Are insurance premium reimbursements considered taxable income?