Posts tagged 'IRS'

On November 25, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced updates to the annual benefits plan report/return filings. In general, the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) teamed up with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). As part of this joint effort, the agencies released informational copies of the 2024 Form 5500, Form 5500-SF, IRS Form 5500-EZ, IRS Form 5558, and related instructions online. Subsequently, the IRS will release paper copies of Form 5500-EZ and instructions for 2024 separately on its website. This will occur after January 1st, 2025. Previously, in February 2024, the DOL announced that under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the EBSA recovered $1.435 billion for ERISA complaints and other benefits violations in fiscal year (FY) 2023.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has resumed its practice of sending no-match letters to notify employers when any of their employees' submitted Social Security numbers do not correspond to a valid number on record. The SSA temporarily stopped issuing the letters in 2009 when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under pressure from both unions and business groups, withdrew its...

Four years after Congress passed the Pension Protection Act of 2006, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released final regulations on hybrid pension plans, which combine defined benefits (payout at retirement) with 401(k)-style defined contributions. According to consulting firm Towers Watson, nearly one-quarter of Fortune 100 companies offer hybrid plans, and it is estimated that nearly on...

Commencing Jan. 1, 2011, a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was set to prohibit companies from offering more expensive health insurance plans to top executives, armed with a fine of $100 per day for each such highly insured executive. Previously, this requirement had applied only to self-insured plans, but come the New Year, it was to apply to all non-grandfat...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced dollar limits for tax-deferred retirement savings accounts for 2011, and, reflecting a flat cost-of-living index for 2010, has left those limits virtually unchanged for the new year. For instance, the limit for 401(k), 457(b) and 403(b) plans remains unchanged at $16,500, with health savings accounts (HSA) holding steady at $3,050 for individuals...

Testifying before a House subcommittee, Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Hilda Solis recently detailed plans for fiscal 2011 to use $1.7 billion out of a budget of $116.5 billion, along with 10,957 employees out of 17,800 total, for what she called "worker protection activities." Plans also call for adding another 90 inspectors to the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) after the addition...

As reported here this past November when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced its plans, the federal tax agency has commenced the first phase of its audit of 6,000 firms of all sizes and industries to root out abuses of executive pay, fringe benefits, record-keeping, and misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The Employment Tax National Research Project (NRP) will st...

Strapped for cash, the Internal Revenue Service has announced plans to audit 6,000 businesses, both large and small, with a focus on worker misclassification, fringe benefits, reimbursed expenses, and executive compensation. If the IRS discovers personnel listed as independent contractors who are in fact company employees, the results could be costly. The firm could owe large sums in past ...

I found this (now-purloined) graph prepared by an economist writing about health care in the United States in the New York Times. His purpose was much different than mine. I'm reproducing it to show how politicians blatantly lie every time they say they're going to tax the wealthy and leave the middle class alone. Yeah, right. All the money is in the middle, as the graph clearly shows (totals i...

Now, if you think about it, there's only one institution in our nation capable of wasting that many hours of people's time...our good ol' government. For the answer to what takes that long, think April 15. Yup, it takes all of us and our tax preparers and accountants and whoever else is involved 7.6 billion hours each year to comply with our tax filing requirements. To do that much work, it w...