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Compensation & Benefits

House bill would scrap ACA’s ‘Cadillac tax’ on health benefits

05/05/2015
Legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives to repeal the Affordable Care Act excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans scheduled to go into effect in 2018.

Tax Court: Payments to kids are allowance, not wages

05/04/2015
Summer means kids working in the family business. But beware. The Tax Court tossed a sole proprietor’s effort to deduct as wages payments made to her children. According to the court, there wasn’t any consistent correlation between the hours worked and the amounts recorded as wage payments.

Cool down the summer hiring process

05/03/2015
Eager young adults may be papering the company with summer hiring inquiries and job applications. These tips will help you cool the summer hiring process.

Regs allow wraparound coverage for part-time employees

05/02/2015
Excepted benefits, such as limited-scope dental and vision benefits, aren’t subject to the Affordable Care Act’s requirements to provide affordable group coverage that provides minimum value. Proposed regulations would include wraparound coverage as a new category of excepted benefits. This coverage would be available to part-time employees and retirees. Under these regs, wraparound coverage would be permitted under a pilot program that begins no later than Dec. 31, 2017, and lasts for three years.

May 2015: Employer’s business tax calendar

04/30/2015
Here’s your monthly guide to critical payroll due dates.

Is it ever OK for a boss to change a time sheet?

04/29/2015
Q. Is it illegal for managers to change exempt or nonexempt employees’ time sheets if they neglect to indicate that they took a day off?

Contesting unemployment? Be sure you have been fair

04/29/2015
Employees discharged for willful misconduct aren’t eligible for unemployment benefits. Generally, refusing an assignment is willful misconduct. But what it you only fire one and not others who refuse the same assignment?

Recruiting: Which benefits do employers tout to highly skilled candidates?

04/29/2015
More than three-fourths of employers talk up their health benefits when trying to recruit highly skilled job applicants. Fewer tout the value of other benefits.

Are there limits on employees’ refiling W-4 forms?

04/28/2015
Q: We have employees who change their W-4 forms on an almost weekly basis. This is becoming very burdensome. Management has asked whether there are any regulations that allow us to limit the number of W-4 changes employees can make a year. Also, how do you explain to full-time employees that they’re not exempt from paying federal income taxes?

Proposed rule would combat retirement plan conflicts of interest

04/28/2015
The U.S. Department of Labor has released a proposed rule designed to protect 401(k) and IRA investors by cracking down on conflicts of interest in the retirement plan marketplace. The proposed rule would update and close loopholes in the nearly 40-year-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which governs employer-sponsored retirement plans.