As employers cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, they may consider leave-sharing programs as a method to permit employees to donate paid leave to their coworkers. Leave-sharing programs that are properly structured under Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) guidance permit exclusion of transferred leave from the gross income of a donor employee and inclusion of the transferred […]
RJ
On April 9. 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued Notice 2020-23, which extends a number of key filing deadlines in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance provides welcome relief to individuals and plan sponsors who must perform certain “time-sensitive actions” on or after April 1, 2020 and before July 15, 2020. […]
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RJ
As the saying goes, “drastic times call for drastic measures” and, from an economic standpoint, these are drastic times. To fight the battle to stay in business many employers are considering a wide range of alternatives, including employee furloughs, layoffs and terminations. While some employers may also consider sweeping salary reductions, other employers may consider […]
MS
On March 18, 2020, President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) requiring group health plans to cover COVID-19 testing for free and without preauthorization. This means no deductibles, no copays, and no coinsurance. More details regarding the changes employers are required to make are explained in our Employee Benefits Update of March […]
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The U.S. Supreme Court is mulling over whether retirement plan participants must demonstrate individual or imminent risk of financial loss before seeking a breach of fiduciary duty action under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the matter of Thole v. […]
RJ
I previously blogged about certain compensation related updates to ISS’ proxy voting guidelines for 2020. With proxy season in full swing, I wanted to highlight some important compensation related changes to the Glass Lewis 2020 voting guidelines, a full copy of which can be found here. Contractual Payments and Arrangements. In their 2020 guidelines, Glass […]
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In enacting the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, (the “Act”), Congress, among other changes, enacted the following key changes affecting employer group health plans: Repeal of the Cadillac Tax: Most notably, and a huge relief to most employers, Congress repealed the Cadillac tax. The Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) added a requirement requiring employers to pay […]
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Background As noted in our previous December 2018 blog post, “Texas Judge Declares the Affordable Care Act Unconstitutional – What’s Next?,” and our October 2019 newsletter, “2019 End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” List (Part 1) Health & Welfare,” on December 14, 2018, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern […]
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On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, a spending bill that includes the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”). The SECURE Act initially passed the House in May, as discussed in our S&W Benefits Blog “The SECURE Act – A Primer on […]
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Each year, we publish health and welfare, cost-of-living, qualified retirement plan, and executive compensation plan checklists to help individuals and employers stay apprised of updates to the law of employee benefits. We just published the last of these annual checklists. In case you missed them, the links are below. Happy Holidays! 2019 End of Year […]
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