Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The good news: Important drugs are going generic — a savings opportunity for employer-sponsored health plans, which should do what’s reasonable and what’s allowed to switch employees over to generics. The bad news: Health plans may still have to ensure they are getting the maximum cost savings. A case in point: Several health plans are […]
As noted in this earlier blog post, the IRS and Treasury Department recently issued proposed rules that they hope will better define governmental plan status. They’ve been seeking comments from the governmental plan community and now have scheduled public hearings on the matter on July 9 and 10. Both public hearings will take place 10 […]
Most employment laws include provisions protecting employees from vindictive managers who would otherwise punish them for exercising their rights. The Family and Medical Leave Act is no exception. Late last year, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division released Fact Sheet # 77B explaining the FMLA’s anti-retaliatory provisions. Here are some highlights: Prohibitions An […]
Employers with fleets of vehicles can now determine the value of making them available for use in 2012, thanks to the IRS, which on Jan. 17 released the maximum vehicle values for use with the special valuation rules for employer-provided cars, trucks and vans in 2012. Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2012-13, provides the new maximum […]
Sexual harassment charges had been declining somewhat, but the recent publicity will reverse that trend, says Schickman, who is a partner at Freeland Cooper & Foreman LLP in San Francisco. His remarks came at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Las Vegas. Schickman is a member of the Employers Counsel Network, and edits the BLR/HRhero […]
Yesterday, Jim Brown of Sedgwick, LLP, ran down 5 tips to help you properly coordinate workers’ comp leaves. Today, the rest of the top 10—plus a California leaves resource that’s been fully updated for 2012.
With Jennifer McCormack, Esq. Lots of different kinds of coverage will not have to report their expenses next tax year (the 2012 tax year), and lots of employers won’t have to either. Are you one of them? Beginning calendar year 2012, employers must report on Forms W-2 (which employers will give employees in January 2013) […]
Confused about what exactly a “leased employee” is? Turns out a lot of people the IRS contacted were, too. The IRS’ Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU) recently completed its study on the role of leased employees in retirement plans. When EPCU asked plan sponsors who used pension feature code “3F” on their Forms 5500 — […]
The economy may have slowly crept back up last year (as ABC News writes here; see also the Jan. 6 economic report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics), but that doesn’t mean that everything is rebounding. A new analysis by actuarial firm Milliman shows that the funding deficit for 100 of the largest pension plans […]
By Rich Glass. The IRS is hitting the ground running. Just a few days into 2012, we received Notice 2012-09, which addresses reporting health care coverage costs on Forms W-2. Following are a nine more things that Glass says we can expect from the federal government this year. Affordable Care Act (ACA), Part I: Health […]