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A tax credit meant to help millions of small businesses afford health coverage for their employees was claimed by only 170,300 last year, a government watchdog has found.

The Government Accountability Office report, made public this week, is the latest to highlight the shortcomings of the tax credit, which has been criticized for being too weak and complex.

The report noted that only a fraction of those eligible have used the assistance. Between 1.4 million and 4 million small businesses were eligible for the tax credit, according to GAO.

The tax credit, enacted as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, is aimed at defraying the high cost of health coverage. It is available to companies that have 25 or fewer workers, pay average salaries of $50,000 or less and cover at least half of employee health insurance premiums.

Health care reform isn’t a job killer - yet

Many small employers have told CNNMoney that they found the tax credit program to be too confusing — and often too costly — to be worth the accounting endeavor.

So many small firms are forgoing the extra cash that $20 billion dollars meant to go to small businesses over the next decade won’t be distributed, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The GAO report noted the credit "was not large enough to incentivize employers to begin offering insurance." According to the report, the average credit was $2,700.

Worse still, company owners were deterred from making claims because of the confusing way the credit is calculated online payday loan lenders. The formula includes odd features, such as counting some workers as 1/15th of an employee and reducing federal help if a firm insures more workers.

The GAO suggested that the Internal Revenue Service revise its procedures and take a softer approach with companies that make mistakes on credit applications.

Included in the report was a response from IRS Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller, who agreed with some suggestions but said his agency had conducted "significant outreach" to small businesses.

President Obama has also suggested changes that would simplify and expand the tax credit for businesses this year.

A Treasury Department spokesperson on Tuesday noted that new tax credits take some time to gain popularity and that the IRS plans to ramp up outreach.

Treasury had previously told CNNMoney that nearly 309,000 small businesses received the credit for 2010 as of late last year. That number counted individual partners at firms, not actual employers.

It is possible the entire tax credit program could be scrapped depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case challenging the 2010 law’s constitutionality. A ruling is expected next month. 

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State media say police have arrested four senior executives at a major state-owned shipping company for alleged mismanagement.

Online VnExpress says Duong Chi Dung, former chairman of Vietnam National Shipping Lines, or Vinalines, and three other executives were detained Friday for allegedly causing losses of $80 million from 2009-2010 after purchasing old ships and making poor investments.

Dung was promoted in February to head the government’s Maritime Department no fax pay day loan.

The arrests come more than a month after nine senior executives of another major state-owned company, the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industrial Group, or Vinashin, were given lengthy jail sentences following a scandal that resulted in the lowering of Vietnam’s credit rating.

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Payday loans no faxing fall on the less risky side simply because the money loaned to you is a percentage of your next paycheck.

Investors are getting increasingly worried about whether Greece will remain in the eurozone. And they should.

There are a series of upcoming events that could spell the end of a deal, put in place nearly three months ago, to restructure Greece’s debt under strict terms dictated by the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, known as the troika.

"The threat from Greece remains real, and Greece exiting the euro area would likely have contagion effects that cannot easily be addressed in the current set-up," said Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts in a note Monday. "The next weeks are crucial."

Greece has been struggling under a mountain of debt, as it tries to push through unpopular austerity measures and get its economy on solid footing. Without a cohesive government, that battle just got tougher.

Here’s what next in the Greek political drama, and what it could mean for the rest of Europe and the global economy.

Where do things stand after last week’s national elections? There is still no party that has been able to form a new government. The two parties from the previous ruling coalition that supported austerity and the debt deal, New Democracy and Pasok, only have 149 seats between them and 151 are needed.

So far, none of the other parties are willing to join them, given Greek voters’ anger over the harsh austerity measures.

If Greek President Karolos Papoulias is not able to bring together a new ruling coalition by Thursday, he is expected to call for another round of voting, likely in mid-June.

What is likely to happen if new elections are held in June? Recent polls and various experts seem to agree that the Coalition of the Radical Left, also known as Syriza, would be the top vote getter in the next round. Syriza has gained solid support since finishing second in last week’s round of voting.

If it can form a majority coalition with other anti-austerity parties, that would leave Greece with a government opposed to the earlier deals made with the EU, IMF and ECB, which has to approve funds for Greece that would allow the government to pay its bills and make its bond payments.

Whether the June election result would lead to a disorderly default and a Greek exit from the euro is far less clear.

"Even Syriza is not really interested in getting out of the euro. Their primary focus is to renegotiate the bailout package," said Dimitri Papadimitriou, economics professor and expert on Greece from Bard College.

But without financial support from the so-called troika, it will be tough for Greece to meet its financial obligations.

Can Greece stop paying its bills and still stay in the eurozone? That is the biggest unknown, and probably the biggest worry for markets.

Elisabeth Afseth, fixed income analyst for Investec Bank in London, said if Greece stops paying its bills, that will mean the end of the funding it so desperately needs. If that happens, it won’t have much choice but to start issuing its own currency to pay its ongoing bills.

How Greece can stay in eurozone

But Papadimitriou said that other European leaders are also loath to have Greece exit the euro, due to the shock it might cause for the continent’s already-fragile financial system 100% free credit score. Therefore, he said, it is possible, albeit unlikely, that there could be yet another new deal even if Greece stops paying what it owes.

"I would expect the European finance ministers’ meeting to have intense discussions this week," he said. "The best case for keeping Greece within the euro would be for the rest of Europe to be proactive in trying to come up with a renegotiated deal suitable for all parties. But I’m not optimistic."

What’s the best case scenario for Greece leaving the euro? In the best case, the ECB steps in and contains the so-called contagion effect.

While the central bank’s drumbeat has been to not be the lender of last resort, it has also made it clear that it would do everything in its power to keep the crisis from spreading.

Greek euro exit won’t mean tragedy

A dozen European countries are already in recession but thanks to Germany’s surprise growht, the entire EU and eurozone managed to stave off recession in the first quarter.

Even in this best case scenario, one in which measures to prop up the non-Greek sovereign debt work, the austerity measures needed to pay for them would send the remaining countries of the eurozone and EU into an even deeper, more prolonged downturn.

Yields could soar on government debt for Portugal and Ireland, let alone much larger economies like Spain and Italy, vastly increasing the costs for the remaining European governments that are paying for various bailouts.

That would also weigh on the already slowing growth in both the United States and Asia.

How bad could things get? Things could be worse than that — far worse.

"I don’t think anyone at the present time can quantify the contagion effect of a disorderly exit of Greece from the eurozone," said Papadimitriou. "No one can predict the markets. They have a mind of their own.

In a worst-case scenario, the Greek exit prompts other countries to leave the euro, as voters there follow Greek voters’ lead and rebel against austerity measures.

"As it stands now, there’s no precedence for leaving," said Afseth. "If Greece leaves, all of sudden there is precedent."

If larger countries follow Greece out of eurozone, it could cause a meltdown in the European banking sector, which holds billions of euros of sovereign debt of the other troubled economies, as well as private sector loans to consumers.

In turn, businesses in those countries would be unable to pay given their suddenly devalued currency.

While U.S. authorities have said U.S. banks have relatively limited exposure to European sovereign debt, the major banks here do have exposure to the European banking system, so a meltdown in European markets would be felt in the United States and around the globe. 

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Asian shares edged higher Monday due to optimism about the regional economy after a move by China’s central bank over the weekend to encourage lending and curtail a slowdown.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained 0.2 percent to 8,974.69 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2 percent to 4,292.70. Benchmarks in Singapore and New Zealand also rose.

But South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.6 percent at 1,906.60 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.1 percent at 19,942.64.

The People’s Bank of China announced the bank reserve ratio requirement is being reduced a half percentage point as of next Friday.

The move brings the rate down to 20 percent for most major banks and effectively frees up billions of dollars for lending.

But the regional market remains nervous about political uncertainty in crisis-struck Greece.

Wall Street ended last week with a decline after JPMorgan said it lost $2 billion on poorly-thought-out trades. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3 percent Friday to 12,820.60.

In currencies, the euro dipped slightly at $1.2890 while the dollar was little changed at 80.08 Japanese yen.

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The European Commission has called on EU nations to stick to their promised budget cuts despite voter discontent in France and Greece, but promised new efforts to boost growth to alleviate economic hardship.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy also called for an impromptu informal summit of the 27 EU government leaders on May 23 to discuss economic growth and to prepare for a summit in June focused on job-boosting measures.

In elections on Sunday, voters in France and Greece gave strong support to parties who want to roll back or slow down the spending cuts and tax increases that have defined Europe’s response to its debt crisis.

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The largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), told the Federal Reserve that a limit on their credit exposure is unnecessary and

European policy makers were urged to be tougher and more agile in their efforts to end two years of debt turmoil as the International Monetary Fund won more than $430 billion to safeguard the world economy.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde

A German court has ruled that online video platform YouTube must install filters to prevent users from uploading some music videos whose rights are held by a music-royalties collecting body.

German news agency dapd reported that the Hamburg state court on Friday mostly sided with Germany’s GEMA, which represents about 60,000 German writers and musicians.

GEMA took Google Inc.’s YouTube unit to court over 12 temporarily uploaded music videos for which no royalties were paid.

YouTube has maintained that it bears no legal responsibility for the uploaded content _ saying it checks and sometimes blocks content when users alert the firm about alleged violations of laws.

It was not immediately clear whether the ruling will be appealed.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below Payday advance.

BERLIN (AP) _ A German court is set to rule on whether the online video platform YouTube is responsible for the content of videos uploaded by its users.

GEMA, a German music royalties collecting body, took Google Inc.’s YouTube unit to the Hamburg state court over 12 uploaded music videos for which no royalties were paid.

YouTube maintains that it bears no legal responsibility for the uploaded content _ saying that it checks and sometimes blocks content when users alert the firm about alleged violations of laws.

A ruling Friday in favor of GEMA could be a major blow for YouTube because experts say that millions of videos on its platform could be affected.

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No central banker in the world

ST. LOUIS  Former Missouri Gov. Roger Wilson and a St. Louis lawyer were indicted on a federal misdemeanor charge late Wednesday for allegedly laundering campaign contributions to the Missouri Democratic Party through a St. Louis law firm, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Thursday morning.

State campaign finance records show that the contributions, $5,000 on Aug. 28, 2009, and $3,000 on Dec. 22, 2009, were from the Herzog Crebs law firm in St. Louis to the Missouri Democratic State Committee.

But Wednesday’s indictment says that the $8,000 actually came from a state-created workers’ compensation company, Columbia-based Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance Co., and Wilson.

They were made at the direction of former MEM board member Doug Morgan and with the knowledge and approval of Wilson, the indictment says, and came through former Herzog partner Ed Griesedieck, who was also indicted. Herzog was repaid for the $5,000 contribution by billing MEM for legal work. The $3,000 contribution was billed to Morgan, but Wilson eventually wrote a personal check to cover the contribution and MEM’s in-house counsel learned of the political contribution.

The other MEM board members did not know about or approve the contributions, the indictment says.

The criminal charge, misappropriation of money by someone in the insurance business, carries a potential penalty of up to a year in prison, but both men will likely face no more than probation and perhaps a fine.

The indictment sheds light on a mystery that has surrounded Wilson for nearly a year.

Since June 2011, when he was ousted as CEO, Wilson has refused to talk about the matter. That silence contrasted with his two decades in public office, when he was known as a straight-shooter who was always quick with a quip.

The indictment is the latest scandal for Columbia-based Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance Co., the state-created workers’ compensation firm that has endured a year of setbacks to its public image.

Two former board members were indicted separately last year for alleged theft and fraud involving other organizations. The company’s former chairman, Doug Morgan, resigned in May, and questions mounted in June when the company forced out its chief executive officer, Wilson, without explanation.

Chuck Hatfield, a longtime political adviser to Gov. Jay Nixon, was retained by Missouri Employers Mutual to help manage the crisis. Jim Owen, a former law school classmate of Nixon, became the CEO.

During Wilson’s tenure, the state-sponsored insurance company made at least one political donation to Jay Nixon’s gubernatorial campaign, even though the governor controls the 5-member board of Missouri Employers Mutual by appointing three of the insurer’s board members.

According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, the firm contributed $4,000 to the “Jay Nixon for Missouri” committee on Dec. 30, 2008. The contribution was made after Nixon’s election but before he took office in January 2009.

A recent state audit took issue with Missouri Employers Mutual’s spending practices, but did not dwell on its political contributions. However, the audit noted that company funds since 2003 were used for $8,000 in political contributions to the Missouri Democratic Party; $7,400 in cash and in-kind donations to the Missouri Insurance Coalition Political Action Committee; and $4,000 in donations to gubernatorial inaugural festivities in 2005 and 2009.

State Auditor Tom Schweich portrayed a company that operates like a private entity, handing out hefty bonuses to employees, while enjoying federal tax-exempt status and other advantages that its private competitors lack.

The company was created by the Legislature in 1993 in response to a crisis in the state’s insurance industry, when small businesses struggled to afford workers’ compensation coverage business card design. As an “independent public corporation,” the firm has avoided about $50 million in federal taxes since its founding, which has enabled it to accumulate a surplus of $163 million and become the state’s leading workers’ compensation provider.

The insurer paid about $1.58 million in severance benefits or settlement payments to four former top executives and employees who either resigned or who left the company in 2009 and 2010, the auditor found. The firm also has bankrolled lavish business jaunts to Hawaii and Mexico, along with sports tickets and suites for its board members, executives, employees and guests.

Amid state lawmakers’ questions about the company’s large surplus and tax-exempt status, Missouri Employers Mutual recently decided to pay its first dividend to members

Griesedieck’s firm worked for Missouri Employers Mutual, but he had another connection.

He also represented a development company in a failed bid for a casino in north St. Louis County.

Last year, federal prosecutors claimed in an indictment that MEM board member and former chairman of the St. Louis County Planning Commission Doug Morgan told at least two friends he was a secret partner in the development company, North County Development LLC.

POLITICAL PAST

Politics ran in Wilson’s family.

Wilson was an assistant elementary school principal in Columbia in 1976 when friends persuaded him to run for Boone County collector, an office his father had held. Wilson’s grandfather had been Boone County sheriff when he was killed in a gunbattle with bank robbers in 1933.

Roger Wilson moved to the state Senate in 1979. Education and law enforcement were his focus, along with the state budget. He headed the Appropriations Committee for six years.

He won his first statewide election in 1992, edging out State Auditor Margaret Kelly in the lieutenant governor’s race. He won re-election in 1996.

Wilson was expected to run for governor in 2000 but dropped that quest in March 1998, citing a distaste for raising the millions of dollars needed for the campaign and a desire to spend more time with his family.

Wilson was nearing the end of his term as lieutenant governor in October 2000, when Gov. Mel Carnahan was killed in a plane crash. Wilson took over as governor for three months, until Democrat Bob Holden was inaugurated.

After leaving the Capitol, Wilson worked for a money management firm. He served as the Missouri Democratic Party’s chairman from 2004 to 2007.

The county government building in Columbia is named after him. A statute of him stands outside the building.

Griesedieck’s profile has been removed from the Herzog website, and a reporter was told Wednesday that he was no longer with the firm.

In his 2008 profile, the firm said that Griesedieck was a partner and member of the firm’s management committee and did corporate and real estate work and acted as general counsel for a number of medium and large corporations throughout the Midwest.

He also is a former city attorney and prosecuting attorney for several St. Louis County communities and hosted the “Ask the Attorney” program on KMOX for 20 years.

He graduated from Notre Dame and St. Louis University Law School, the site says.

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