In June 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted Regulation Best Interest. Regulation BI (as it is known) imposes a new standard of conduct for broker-dealers when making recommendations of any securities transaction or investment strategy (including account recommendations) to a retail customer. Regulation BI also applies to associated persons of broker-dealers that are natural…
Breaking News: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced on March 20, 2020 that the IRS is moving Tax Day to July 15, 2020 from April 15. Accordingly, taxpayers can now delay filing and paying taxes until July 15. Taxpayers can also still delay paying first quarter 2020 estimates until July 15. For details clickhere.
The Treasury announced yesterday, March 17, 2020, invoking the…
The SECURE Act1 makes sweeping changes to the required minimum distribution (“RMD”) rules for retirement accounts. Except for a few types of beneficiaries, it eliminates the most popular tax-advantaged planning feature - the ability of a retirement beneficiary to stretch RMDs over the beneficiary’s life expectancy. The elimination of the stretch fundamentally changes how beneficiaries are taxed…
The SECURE Act, signed into law on December 20, 2019, may help alleviate some of the burdens small employers face when providing retirement plans. Here are a few key things you need to know when evaluating what, if any, changes you should make to take advantage of this new legislation.
OPEN MULTIPLE EMPLOYER PLANS
While Multiple Employer Plans (or MEPs) are not new to the retirement industry, they…
The United States Supreme Court recently put an end to West Virginia’s practice of exempting pension income of certain State law enforcement officers from the State’s income tax while disallowing the exemption for similarly situated federal retirees. At issue was a provision in the State’s tax code that exempts from West Virginia income tax pension payments received from a number of pension funds…
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Tax Act”) into law which makes significant changes to the estate, gift, and generation skipping taxes.
The Tax Act doubles the estate, gift, and generation skipping tax exemptions to approximately $11.2 Million per person for 2018, which provides significant relief for high net worth individuals and families with valuable…
Over the last several years, much has been written in connection with the surge of “excessive fee” litigation against Section 401(k) plans. The surge continues and has now been extended to Section 403(b) plans which are often referred to as Tax Deferred Annuities. One commentator estimates that over twenty class action excessive fee litigation cases were filed during the first quarter of 2016…
The federal government continues to focus on what various agencies refer to as “misclassified” employees -- workers who should be treated as employees but whom the employer classifies as independent contractors. Many businesses prefer to utilize independent contractors rather than employees. With independent contractors, businesses are not subject to FICA/FUTA obligations, federal and state…
The increase in usage of limited liability companies (“LLCs”) as the business form of choice has led to changes in the IRS statutes concerning audits of LLCs. On November 2, 2015, President Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (“BBA”) into law. The BBA brings drastic changes to the audit process of partnerships which will allow the IRS greater enforcement and collection authority in…
