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Compensation & Benefits

3 educational benefit offerings to consider

07/17/2024
This year marks the first full one in a long time that many of your employees are budgeting for student loan repayments. It’s stressing them out and preventing them from pursuing further education, which hurts you as an employer.

Yucky pink medicine!

07/17/2024
The Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t cover employees who take time off for school visits, so the regular rules apply—you don’t have to pay nonexempts for time they’re not working. You also don’t have to pay exempts who take full days off as personal time. In both cases, employees may use their accrued time off, if they have any.

In the Payroll Mailbag: August 2024

07/17/2024
Are power outages compensable nonexempt experiences? … What are the docking rules for salaried nonexempts? … What’s the best timekeeping method for new nonexempts?

Paging all humans: The FLSA & the FMLA still need you

07/17/2024
Artificial intelligence has taken firm hold in American workplaces. By far, the focus is on how generative AI will either streamline tasks or supplant employees altogether. The Department of Labor isn’t buying the employees-will-soon-be-replaced talk. Human oversight is still necessary to the proper functioning of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, the DOL concluded.

Mass transit benefits can be rolled over, but not refunded

07/17/2024
Mass transit benefits are part of a suite of benefits falling into the category of tax-favored qualified transportation fringe benefits. Unused QTF benefits never expire, even benefits employees paid for on a pretax basis in prior calendar years. Instead, employees can keep rolling over unused benefits until they’re used up. This is important, since the IRS has concluded that unused QTF benefits can’t be refunded to an employee.

Bring summer dog days to heel

07/17/2024
Dog days of summer slowing you down? You can tame this beast by keeping busy. Take some time now to make sure your i’s are dotted and your t’s are crossed.

Two-minute payroll reads: August ’24

07/17/2024
Payroll is complicated and your time is limited. Spend two minutes reading these digests and you’ll be up-to-date on key payroll developments.

IRS’ mistakes lead Tax Court to dismiss a case

07/17/2024
The IRS has to follow the same rules as you. If your business moves, you need to notify the IRS of your new address. The IRS, for its part, must use reasonable methods to ascertain your last known address. The Tax Court dismissed a case against a delinquent taxpayer because the IRS couldn’t explain why it didn’t follow its own change-of-address rules.

IRS can claw back interest on erroneous payroll credits

07/17/2024
The IRS paid you overpayment interest if you received the refundable portion of a pandemic payroll tax credit late. The credits included the paid sick and family and medical leave credits and, importantly, the employee retention credit. Proposed regulations now allow the IRS to recapture the interest it paid on the refundable portion of these tax credits if you received the credits in error.

Student athletes may be employees under the FLSA

07/17/2024
These student athletes aren’t claiming to be independent contractors or volunteers, two categories of service providers who are exempt from the FLSA and the tax code. They’re not in a work-study program as most of us understand it. Nevertheless, both the FLSA and the tax code recognize two types of paid work—work as an employee or an independent contractor.