Employee benefits are an important part of every employees' total compensation package. The continuously evolving landscape in the areas of health care reform, retirement plan design, and executive compensation makes it difficult for employee benefits professionals to keep up with relevant developments. The employee benefits attorneys at Leonard, Street and Deinard provide human resources professionals, plan fiducia- ries, actuaries, accountants, and others in the industry with practical and cost-effective assistance as they navigate through the complex laws, regulations and guidance that govern employee benefits plans. This blog highlights key developments in the employee benefits field and items of interest to our clients. Our Bloggers →
Deferred Compensation and 409A, Executive Compensation, Payroll A taxpayer we will call John worked for a savings bank in New York that was acquired by Washington Mutual Bank. John participated in the New York bank’s supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP) and its deferred compensation plan, both of which were nonqualified deferred compensation plans. When Washington...
Deferred Compensation and 409A, ERISA and Other Benefits Litigation, Executive Compensation, Payroll Code Section 409A which was effective in January 1, 2005, provides strict rules that must be applied to most deferred compensation arrangements accruing benefits after the effective date. Failure to comply with the Code and the applicable Treasury Regulations can result in a 20% surtax plus interest on the amounts...
Compensation Questions, Payroll Those of us who work in the benefits area understand that the distinction between employee and independent contractor is an important one, but one in which the determination is not always clear. In many cases, the IRS takes the position that a particular worker is an employee, rather than an independent contractor,...
Payroll, Retirement Plans The recent “fiscal cliff” legislation, the American Taxpayer Relief Act 2012 includes a revenue raising idea for the government – more Roth conversions. The new provision would allow private company defined contribution plans (i.e., 401(k) and profit sharing plans); Section 403(b) plans for tax exempts and...
Health Care Reform, Health Plan, Payroll The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires employers who issue 250 or more W-2s in a year to report the aggregate cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan in Box 12 of each employee’s Form W-2, using code DD. In general, the amount reported should include both the employer and...
Payroll Although our main office is in Minneapolis, Minnesota, we have clients located in other parts of the country, and ourselves have an office in Washington, D.C. Some of our clients have employees who have been hard hit by Hurricane Sandy. Employers want to help their employees, and employees not affected by the...
Payroll A recent Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision concluded that severance pay provided to employees as a result of layoff or discontinuance of a plant, operations or other similar condition is exempt from FICA taxes. According to the court of appeals, it does not matter whether the severance is paid in a lump sum or...
Cafeteria Plans, Health Plan, Payroll Sole proprietors, partners (including LLC members) and two percent shareholders in an S corporation are not treated as “employees” for purposes of certain benefits. Among those benefits is employer provided health insurance coverage. While employer subsidies for health coverage are generally excluded from the...
Health Care Reform, Payroll The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) provided a number of new taxes to help finance the new health care law. One such tax is an additional Medicare tax on high earners that takes effect for tax years beginning after 2012. To assist taxpayers and employers in implementing the collection of the new...
ERISA and Other Benefits Litigation, Payroll, Retirement Plans Verizon Communications, Inc. sponsored a number of plans for its foreign employees. These employees were citizens of foreign countries who never worked in the United States. Because these employees never worked or resided in the United States, their employment income and the benefits from their retirement plans were...
