A state appeals court in California has preempted Uber and Lyft’s threatened state-wide shutdown over a new state law ordering them to reclassify their drivers as employees by “allowing them to continue operating [under their...more
IRS Notice 2020-46 addresses the tax treatment of employees who elect to have their employers donate sick, vacation or personal leave as cash payments to charitable organizations that provide relief to victims of the COVID-19...more
In final regulations set to take effect for 2020 Forms W-2, the IRS gives employers the option of using truncated Social Security numbers (SSNs) on employee Forms W-2 issued after December 31, 2020. The new rules are an...more
On October 9, 2019, the IRS released Revenue Ruling 2019-24, which provides guidance with respect to hard forks and airdrops of cryptocurrency, and new frequently asked questions (FAQs), which provide guidance on other...more
For several years now, we’ve been alerting employers about the dangers of phishing scams that attempt to obtain private and personal information from employers... Many of these scams rear their ugly head around tax season,...more
With the April 17 tax deadline fast approaching, businesses need to remain vigilant for employee reports (or more likely questions) about fraudulent tax returns being filed in their names. Multiple employee reports of...more
It is tax season once again, and with it comes an increased threat of phishing scams targeting human resources and payroll personnel. In 2016, the IRS alerted employers to a then-emerging email phishing scheme in which...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employers have been scammed into sending sensitive W-2 information to malicious third parties. This article outlines the key steps California employers must immediately take if subject to this unfortunate...more
The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), along with state tax agencies and the tax industry, recently issued a warning to employers about increasingly prevalent “phishing” email scams targeting the W-2 tax form information of...more
It’s the start of tax season, and many employers are sending W-2 forms to employees so they can get ready to file their tax returns. As was true over the past few years, this is not only the busy season for tax preparers,...more
Brushing aside apparent flaws in a proposed class definition, a federal court in Kentucky declined to dismiss class allegations against North Carolina-based pharmacy services provider Pharm-Save Inc. (Pharm-Save) stemming...more
Last February, the IRS issued a warning to all employers regarding the resurgence of a W-2 based cyber scam. The scam, which targets businesses during tax season, was also “spreading to other sectors, including school...more
In this first of (we hope) many posts on the interesting and myriad tax issues arising in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, we focus on the very basic U.S. federal income tax consequences of...more
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a renewed warning for tax professionals and businesses to beware of a recent increase in email scams targeting employee Forms W-2. According to the IRS, the W-2 scam – called business...more
As previously highlighted, in early February, the IRS issued a warning to all employers regarding the resurgence of a W-2 based cyber scam. Since the IRS warning, this type of scam has taken numerous victims. On February 15,...more
HR and payroll professionals nationwide have been, and will continue to be, targeted with e-mails apparently sent by a senior executive but actually sent by scammers who ask for a prompt reply with the 2016 W-2s for all of...more
Our Data Privacy and Security team is currently assisting multiple clients in responding to nearly identical fraudulent requests for IRS Form W-2 information. Significantly, these clients are in a number of industries and are...more
We always see a surge in W2 email phishing schemes this time of year, as it is tax time, and many individuals are filing their tax returns in order to get a quick refund. So are criminals and cyber-hackers. ...more
As if tax season was not bad enough, the U.S. Internal Revenue Services ("IRS") recently issued an urgent alert warning that cybercriminal phishing scams are utilizing a new, more dangerously effective method for large-scale...more
Last year we saw an unprecedented number of companies of all sizes fall victim to a W-2 spear phishing scam. The scam usually began with a “spoofing” email that appeared to have been sent by a company’s CEO or CFO to one or...more
In last year’s materials, loosely styled “Make America Great Again!,” we ruminated upon (and also thought about) what role, if any, federal income taxes might play in helping to make America great again, once the interminable...more
On March 1, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service alerted the business community of an e-mail phishing scheme designed to convince employees to provide company-wide W-2 tax forms containing social security numbers and other...more
Tax season brings many headaches, but none as miserable as sophisticated scammer efforts to steal employee W-2 information. Using social engineering and modest technological tools, a “spear phishing” attack seeks to trick...more
It’s tax season. The dreaded April 15 federal tax filing deadline is looming. You try to be diligent, and you file your tax return early, hoping to get an early refund. But when you try to e-file your return, it gets rejected...more
Tax season ‘tis the season to be phishing, according to the IRS. The IRS has issued a warning to payroll and human resources professionals about a “surge” in phishing emails seen this year. One of the preferred tactics of...more