3/6 ABA Study Group Conference Call Explores ACA Employer Compliance Challenges Hot Topics

February 23, 2015

Solutions Law Press, Inc. publisher/author Cynthia Marcotte Stamer and Society of Professional Benefits Administrators Director of Public Relations & Legal Affairs Elizabeth Ysla Leight will lead a conference call discussion of Hot Topics In Employer Requirements of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (ACA)   for the Welfare Benefits Plans Committee of the American Bar Association (ABA) Real Property, Trusts & Estates Section Employee Benefit Plans and Other Compensation Arrangements Group (Group) on Friday, March 6, 2015 at 1 PM (Eastern), Noon (Central), 11 AM (Mountain), and 10 AM (Pacific).   Conducted as part of a regular series of “Study Group” style conference calls hosted by the Group, participation in the conference call is available at no charge to ABA RPTE members as part of their ABA RPTE membership.

As health care reform continues to unfold, join the Welfare Benefits Committee to examine the requirements imposed on employers by ACA. With a myriad of ever-evolving technical changes in the requirements, their interpretation and deadlines, there is no shortage of compliance challenges or  and ideas for amendments for welfare benefit plan documents and practices. This will be a round-robin hot topics session that will cover as many topics as time will allow.

Expected topics for discussion include:

  • What is on your short list of “Hot Topics”?
  •  ACA litigation, including King v Burwell
  • Self-reporting ACA violations
  • Other topics, including cafeteria plan elections, etc.
  • “Employer “play-or-pay” mandate
  • Employer reporting on the B and C Forms
  • Employee/Independent Contractor Classification Issues
  • More

Welfare Benefits Committee Co-Chairs Ms. Stamer and Ms. Leight, will lead the conference call discussion.  Both are nationally known for their extensive experience and involvement with ACA and other health plan matters.

As the Director of Public and Legal Affairs for the SPBA, Ms. Leight plays a lead role in helping the SPBA’s member third party administration service providers monitor, shape and respond to the ever-shifting federal and state regulatory environment and develop strategies and knowledge to help employer and other health plan sponsors design and administer legally compliant health and other welfare benefit plan strategies.  In addition to her leadership in the Committee, Ms. Leight also serves on the US Department of Labor ERISA Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans, which provides advice on policies and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by ERISA.

Past Chair of the Group, Ms. Stamer  is nationally and internationally known for her innovative leadership and work helping employers, insurers, TPAs, governments, and communities on health benefit and reform and other labor and employment, employee benefits and workforce related challenges.

Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization,  and a Fellow in the American Bar Association, Texas Bar Association, and the American College of Employee Benefit Counsel,  Ms. Stamer’s legal and management consulting work focuses on helping employers, insurers, employee benefit plans and their administrators, fiduciaries and advisors, community leaders and governments manage people, process and risk.   She not only is extensively involved in health, pension and workforce policy and regulation reform, she also helps employers, insurers, administrators and other benefit and human resources services providers and others design, implement, administer and defend innovative, pragmatic health and other employee benefit programs, products and practices.

In addition to her more traditional legal, internal controls and other management consulting work, Ms. Stamer also extensively works with a broad range of business and government clients on health care, pension, social security, workforce, insurance and many other related policy matters critical to their business success and liability management. She both only helps her clients anticipate, monitor and cope with emerging laws, regulations and enforcement and respond to and resolve government investigations and enforcement actions, she also helps them shape the rules through dealings with Congress and other legislatures, regulators and government officials domestically and internationally.  A former lead consultant to the Government of Bolivia on its Social Security reform law and most recognized for her leadership on U.S. health and pension, wage and hour, tax, education and immigration policy reform, Ms. Stamer works with U.S. and foreign businesses, governments, trade associations, and others on workforce, social security and severance, health care, immigration, privacy and data security, tax, ethics and other laws and regulations. Founder and Executive Director of the Coalition for Responsible Healthcare Policy and its PROJECT COPE: the Coalition on Patient Empowerment and a Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefit Counsel, the American Bar Association (ABA) and the State Bar of Texas, Ms. Stamer annually leads the Joint Committee on Employee Benefits (JCEB) HHS Office of Civil Rights agency meeting.  She also works as a policy advisor and advocate to many business, professional and civic organizations.

Author of the thousands of publications and workshops these and other employment, employee benefits, health care, insurance, workforce and other management matters, Ms. Stamer’s insights on employee benefits, insurance, health care and workforce matters in Atlantic Information Services, The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), InsuranceThoughtLeaders, Employee Benefit News, Texas CEO Magazine, HealthLeaders, Modern Healthcare, Business Insurance, Employee Benefits News, World At Work, Benefits Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News, the Dallas Business Journal, the Houston Business Journal, and many other publications. She also has served as an Editorial Advisory Board Member for human resources, employee benefit and other management focused publications of BNA,HR.com, Employee Benefit News, InsuranceThoughtLeadership.com and many other prominent publications. She also regularly serves on the faculty and planning committees for symposia of LexisNexis, the American Bar Association, the Society of Employee Benefits Administrators, the American Law Institute, ISSA, HIMMs, and many other prominent educational and training organizations and conducts training and speaks on these and other management, compliance and public policy concerns.

Beyond these involvements, Ms. Stamer also is active in the leadership of a broad range of other professional and civic organizations. For instance, Ms. Stamer presently serves as Vice President of the North Texas Healthcare Compliance Professionals Association; Immediate Past Chair of the American Bar Association RPTE Employee Benefits & Other Compensation Committee and its current Welfare Benefit Plans Committee Co-Chair, on its Substantive Groups & Committee and its representative to the ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits; Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Interest Group and a current member of its Healthcare Coordinating Council; current Vice Chair of the ABA TIPS Employee Benefit Committee; the former Coordinator and a Vice-Chair of the Gulf Coast TEGE Council TE Division and as a faculty member, editorial advisory board member, speaker and author for numerous human resources, employee benefits, insurance, technology and data security and other professional associations, programs, and publications.  She previously served as a founding Board Member and President of the Alliance for Healthcare Excellence, as a Board Member and Board Compliance Committee Chair for the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas; the Board President of the early retirement intervention agency, The Richardson Development Center for Children; Chair of the Dallas Bar Association Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Committee; a member of the Board of Directors of the Southwest Benefits Association.

You can review other recent human resources, employee benefits and internal controls publications and resources and additional information about the employment, employee benefits and other experience of the Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, PC here.

About Solutions Law Press

Solutions Law Press™ provides business risk management, legal compliance, management effectiveness and other resources, training and education on human resources, employee benefits, data security and privacy, insurance, health care and other key compliance, risk management, internal controls and operational concerns. If you find this of interest, you also be interested reviewing some of our other Solutions Law Press resources at www.solutionslawpress.com.

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile at here or e-mailing this information here.

©2015 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer. Limited, non-exclusive right to republished granted to Solutions Law Press, Inc. All other rights reserved.

For information about joining the conference call or other details about joining the ABA and participating in the RPTE Welfare Benefit Committee or other activities, see the Welfare Committee Webpage.

 

 

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer

Businesses Should Verify Proper Tracking, Withholding & Reporting On Tips & Gratuities

February 5, 2015

Employers of  restaurant, hotel and other hospitality, cosmetology, and other tipped employees should take the publication by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of IRS Tax Tip 2015-13, What You Should Know if You Get Tipped at Work,  reminding employees about their responsibility to pay taxes on tips and other gratuities as a reminder of the need to implement proper procedures to accurately track the amount of, report as income, and withhold employee’s income and employment tax and report and pay the employer’s required employment taxes on taxable tips and gratuities as required by the Internal Revenue Code (Code) as well as a resource to aid the employer in educating workers about these requirements.

While the IRS’ publication of Tax Tip 2015-13 is targeted at workers receiving tipped compensation, its publication also signals employers of tipped workers of the IRS’ expectation that both employers and employees comply with the Code’s rules about taxation, reporting and withholding on tips and gratuities.

Under the Code, tips and other gratuities generally qualify as taxable wages under the Internal Revenue Code.  Consequently, employers of employees receiving tips, gratuities or other similar compensation generally are responsible for accurately tracking and reporting taxable tips and gratuities collected by their employees, including those amounts when calculating and collecting required income and employment taxes from employee’s pay, and calculating, reporting and paying employment taxes due with respect to those wages by the employer.  Employers caught failing to fulfill these responsibilities risk incurring penalties for failing to report and pay taxes on the tipped wages due from the employer as well as potentially becoming liable as a backup guarantor to pay income and employment taxes owed by the employee on unreported tipped wages that otherwise would have been due from the recipient employee.  To help mitigate these risks, employers of tipped employees should adopt and communicate clearly written policies and procedures requiring employees to report accurately all tips and gratuities, should monitor and enforce these policies and procedures, and should accurately report, pay employment taxes, and report and withhold income and the employee’s required share of employment taxes as required to comply with the Code.  See Publication 531, Tax Topic 761 – Tips – Withholding and Reporting; Form 4137, Social Security and Medicare Tax on Unreported Tip Income; Tip Recordkeeping and Reporting.To aid in this process, employers of tipped employees may want to review and require employee’s to keep a daily log of tips to report tips and gratuities to the employer based on the information provided by the IRS in Publication 1244, Employee’s Daily Record of Tips and Report to Employer, to record your tips. 

Businesses employing tipped employees also should use care to abstain from posting signs or other practices such as asking or otherwise encouraging customers to pay tips or other amounts in cash, which are or could be construed to seek to hide or obscure wages or other taxable receipts to avoid reporting or payment of taxes due under the Code.  Businesses also should use care to properly document, report and include tips and gratuities as required to comply with state unemployment compensation, disability, worker’s compensation, and other laws.

For Advice, Training & Other Resources

Should your business need legal advice about the taxability of or other requirements on tips, gratuities or other compensation,  assistance assessing or resolving potential past or existing compliance exposures, or monitoring and responding to these or other workforce, benefits and compensation, performance and risk management, compliance, enforcement or management concerns, the author of this update, attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer may be able to help.

Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, Past Chair of the ABA RPTE Employee Benefit & Other Compensation Arrangements Group, Co-Chair and Past Chair of the ABA RPTE Welfare Plan Committee, Vice Chair of the ABA TIPS Employee Benefit Plans Committee, an ABA Joint Committee On Employee Benefits Council representative, Past Chair of the ABA Health Law Section Managed Care & Insurance Section, a Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefit Counsel, ABA, and State Bar of Texas, Ms. Stamer has more than 25 years’ experience advising health plan and employee benefit, insurance, financial services, employer and health industry clients about these and other matters. Ms. Stamer has extensive experience advising and assisting health plans and insurers about ACA, and a wide range of other plan design, administration, data security and privacy and other compliance risk management policies.  Ms. Stamer also regularly represents clients and works with Congress and state legislatures, EBSA, IRS, EEOC, OCR and other HHS agencies, state insurance and other regulators, and others.   She also publishes and speaks extensively on health and other employee benefit plan and insurance, staffing and human resources, compensation and benefits, technology, public policy, privacy, regulatory and public policy and other operations and risk management concerns. Her publications and insights appear in the Health Care Compliance Association, Atlantic Information Service, Bureau of National Affairs, World At Work, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, the Dallas Morning News, Modern Health Care, Managed Healthcare, Health Leaders, and a many other national and local publications.

You can review other recent human resources, employee benefits and internal controls publications and resources and additional information about the employment, employee benefits and other experience of the Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, PC here. If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information – including your preferred e-mail – by creating or updating your profile www.cynthiastamer.com or by registering to participate in the distribution of these and other updates on our HR & Employee Benefits Update distributions here including:

If you or someone else you know would like to receive future updates about developments on these and other concerns, please be sure that we have your current contact information including your preferred e-mail by creating or updating your profile here. For important information about this communication click here. 

NOTE:  This article is provided for educational purposes.  It is does not establish any attorney-client relationship nor provide or serve as a substitute for legal advice to any individual or organization.  Readers must engage properly qualified legal counsel to secure legal advice about the rules discussed in light of specific circumstances.

The following disclaimer is included to ensure that we comply with U.S. Treasury Department Regulations.  The Regulations now require that either we (1) include the following disclaimer in most written Federal tax correspondence or (2) undertake significant due diligence that we have not performed (but can perform on request).

ANY STATEMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT INTENDED OR WRITTEN BY THE WRITER TO BE USED, AND NOTHING CONTAINED HEREIN CAN BE USED BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) AVOIDING PENALTIES THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER FEDERAL TAX LAW, or (2) PROMOTING, MARKETING OR RECOMMENDING TO ANOTHER PARTY ANY TAX-RELATED TRANSACTION OR MATTER ADDRESSED HEREIN.

©2014 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer. Limited, non-exclusive right to republished granted to Solutions Law Press, Inc. All other rights reserved.

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Posted by Cynthia Marcotte Stamer