Returning Value Blog

The IRS has provided guidance to employers regarding the recent presidential action to allow employers to defer the withholding, deposit, and payment of certain payroll tax obligations.

Local income taxes are imposed by local governments, such as cities, counties, or school districts. They are used to fund various locally provided services, such as schools, parks, social services, law enforcement, transportation, and community-improvement programs.  

Until recently, employers in only a handful of industries had to provide significant reporting on COVID-19 transmission in the workplace. But as of May 26, new Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines require a much wider range of employers to determine whether employees caught the coronavirus at work or while performing work-related activities. If so, managers must record the illness on OSHA Form 300.

No, there is no universal lifting of restrictions, but the CDC is looking forward to a time when every business can slowly start reopening. As the CDC explains: "It's important to continue to follow federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local guidance for reopening America." Its extensive guidance includes the need to develop a reopening plan:

Since 2005, remote work has soared 173%, according to 2018 data from American Community Service. Whether you recently adopted this remote work model because of the pandemic or have been utilizing it for years, you should know your wage-and-hour responsibilities.

Alabama is one of several states that does require employers to use a federal program designed to stop them from hiring people in the U.S. illegally.  The Alabama legislature passed in both houses legislation prohibiting employers from knowingly employing unauthorized aliens. The law is known as the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act. The law requires all employers to enroll in and utilize E-Verify. 

As a business owner/manager, you have many processes and tasks involved in your day-to-day workload. Scheduling, timekeeping, payroll, etc...How about new hire onboarding?

While February typically has 28 days, in leap years—such as February 2020—it contains an extra day. Employers who pay their salaried employees every week or every two weeks will encounter a year in which there is one payday more than usual. These employers should plan ahead to identify and address these "payroll leap years" in advance. It has been our experience that it is best to keep clients informed of pending leap years so that they can keep their employees informed as well. 

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) covers both defined-benefit and defined-contribution retirement plans. If your organization offers its employees either, you may feel like you’re constantly walking on eggshells trying to oversee all the regulatory details involved. One critical way to stay in compliance and avoid costly penalties is to ensure your plan operates consistently with its plan documents.

Employers with 20 or more employees are generally required to offer continuing health care coverage to departing staff members. This is commonly referred to as “COBRA” after the legislation that made it law: the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.