As a member of your company’s human resources or employee benefits department, one of the most difficult calls you may receive is from a colleague or an employee’s family member notifying you of the death of an employee. This...more
With a multitude of questions surrounding implementation and administration, late on a summer Friday afternoon, the IRS issued Notice 2023-62 (Notice), providing Plan Sponsors with a transition period until 2026 to implement...more
On June 9, 2023, the IRS released OCC Memo 202323006, which advises that wellness indemnity payments under a fixed indemnity insurance policy are wages for purposes of Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes, Federal...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Just like a bad penny, schemes promising employers ways to reduce their FICA tax burden, and maybe their employees’ income tax burden at the same time, keep popping up with a slightly different burnish on...more
Worker Classification and Section 530 Relief - Employers are required to pay employment taxes to the IRS. Generally, these payments consist of two portions: the employee’s portion of FICA and income taxes and the employer’s...more
Movement Toward Tax Increases- You may have read last week that Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee announced they had reached a deal on a budget resolution that will enable them to bypass Senate Republicans on the...more
Freeman Law’s “The Tax Court in Brief” covers every substantive Tax Court opinion, providing a weekly brief of its decisions in clear, concise prose. The Week of June 14 – June 18, 2021 - Bell Capital Management, Inc....more
Nonqualified deferred compensation plans often include anti-assignment language prohibiting a plan participant from assigning benefits to anyone. Because top-hat plans are exempt from most aspects of ERISA including the...more
Employers considering layoffs in the face of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis have additional opportunities to support furloughed workers, aside from options offered by the CARES Act. ...more
With all of the payroll complexities that employers face, it is no surprise that a special set of rules that applies to only a small category of employees is frequently overlooked....more
On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the "Act") was signed into law. The Act added a new Section 83(i) to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code"), pursuant to which certain employees of eligible...more
Hiring and employing family members is common in the realm of family businesses. An important thing to remember is that most family employees are treated in the same manner as any other employee for federal tax purposes,...more
The significance and meaning of the midterm election results is obviously the subject of pervasive interest and intense debate, and the uncertainty of what comes next may be thrilling or terrifying, depending on one’s...more
La última Notificación emitida por el IRS sobre Criptomoneda fue el Aviso 2014-21 publicado el 25 de Marzo del 2014 que brinda orientación en forma de respuestas a preguntas frecuentes (“Frequently Asked Questions”). ...more
Department of Justice and the IRS have announced a renewed emphasis on both civil and criminal payroll tax enforcement lawsuits. This article provides a short overview of what an employment tax case is and identifies...more
Generally, an employer is required to deduct and withhold Federal Insurance Contribution Act taxes (“FICA”), Federal Unemployment Tax Act taxes (“FUTA”), and income tax withholding from its employee’s wages and is separately...more
An election introduced as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act allows taxpayers to defer the recognition of taxable income with respect to certain categories of compensatory stock options and restricted stock units (RSUs)....more
Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Congress is now offering a new 20% deduction for “pass-through” businesses – i.e. businesses that are not corporations. With the corporate tax rate being reduced under the new law to a flat...more
In an earlier post, we reported on the passage of H. 3822, “An Act Further Regulating Employer Contributions to Health Care,” (the “Act”), the purpose of which is to shore up the finances of the Commonwealth’s Medicaid...more
Employers that pay wages and other forms of compensation to their employees must comply with federal tax return filing and payment/deposit requirement. Employers that receive services from non-employee contractors and make...more
Businesses that have employees and pay wages and salaries must withhold federal employee income taxes and the employee’s share of federal employment taxes (FICA) from these wages and salaries. The employer must “match” the...more
Limited liability companies (LLCs) have become the fastest-growing entity choice for businesses in recent years. LLCs provide flexibility in operations and distributions. However, to the surprise of many businesspeople, if an...more
In Chief Counsel Advice 201634023, released Aug. 19, 2016, the IRS Office of Chief Counsel expressed its informal view (in the form of an email to an IRS employee) that “short-week” supplemental unemployment benefits (SUB)...more
Starting a business is not always simple. Being an employer carries with it a number of obligations and it is important to know the ropes prior to even hiring your first employee. Below is a condensed HR checklist that...more
Last summer the Internal Revenue Service updated its Audit Techniques Guide (“ATG”) for nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements. While the ATG provides little instruction on how the IRS will review nonqualified...more