Regulation

Dealing with the compliance and regulatory challenges of the Affordable Care Act and other employment legislation hasn’t left employers much time in recent years to deal with broader benefits strategy issues but the two areas – compliance and strategy – go hand-in-hand.

When he ran for president in 1988, Michael Dukakis infused the phrase “Massachusetts Miracle” into stump speeches to describe the state’s economic transformation. That same description could apply if a costly and controversial plan to fix the state’s Connector exchange succeeds.

Recently, the Internal Revenue Service has focused enforcement activity on examining the implementation of a strong internal control system. The IRS has publicly stated that if a plan is selected for audit the agent will use their evaluation of the plan’s internal controls to determine whether the scope of the examination will be focused or expanded.

A new proposal from the Department of Labor plans to extend the reach of the Family Medical Leave Act to all eligible employees in same-sex marriages, as the federal government continues to offer guidance after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in United States v. Windsor.

Newark is set to join the likes of several other large cities that require employers with 10 or more employees to offer paid sick time.

Employers focused on Obamacare may be missing one of today’s most important compliance issues: benefits for same-sex married couples. Since June 2013, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Windsor that a federal statute limiting the terms “spouse” and “marriage” to couples of the opposite sex was unconstitutional, a sea-change has taken place in national attitudes about same-sex marriage.

The IRS has launched a compliance check program to better understand how plan sponsors are complying with Roth deferral provisions in 401(k) plans. If asked to participate, failure to to respond could trigger an audit.

The state of Massachusetts officially repealed the employer pay-or-play regulations that were part of its landmark 2006 health care reform law. Similar to the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act, the state statute required employers of a certain size to either offer health care coverage to their employees or pay a fine.

Changes to the federal Workforce Investment Act will increase accountability for national job-training programs and shift the emphasis to employer-led education in growth industries.

Why it’s important to prepare your employer clients now for this ACA filing due in early 2016.