Regulation

The retirement planning industry is asking once again for leniency from federal fee disclosure regulations that take effect July 1.

As a result of foreign ownership, it's common for U.S. employees to receive stock options from foreign parents that are subject to taxation in the United States.

The intersection between religion and business is a heated one, with the most recent flare-up sparked by a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that mandates employers cover the cost of contraception in their health plans. Although the Obama administration exempted houses of worship from the rule, it still requires coverage be made available to employees of religiously affiliated organizations such as hospitals and universities.

Regulators are more closely examining companies that serve employers' retirement plans, a sign that there may be harsher enforcement when new fee disclosure rules take effect this summer.

The approximately 65 million job seekers in the United States who have criminal records would get more thorough consideration by potential employers under new guidelines embraced by the federal government last week.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a proposed rule addressing the fees imposed by the Affordable Care Act on issuers of certain health insurance policies and plan sponsors of certain self-insured health plans to fund comparative effectiveness research. These fees are designed to support the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund. The Affordable Care Act includes provisions establishing the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a private, nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to “assist, through research, patients, clinicians,…

Despite recent tax reform proposals, experts testified at a House committee hearing Tuesday that cutting the incentives for retirement plans would be detrimental to savings in this country.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 prohibits discrimination on the basis of age and covers employees who are 40 years of age and older, which provides a statutory exception for "reasonable factors other than age." Since the Supreme Court held in Smith v. City of Jackson that employees could bring a disparate impact case under the ADEA, employers have sought guidance from the EEOC on how it would interpret the cryptic phrase "reasonable…

ERISA defines a multiple employer welfare arrangement as an employee welfare plan or any other arrangement which is established or maintained for the purpose of providing welfare benefits to the employees of two or more "unrelated" entities. Thus, if a welfare plan is maintained by an employer for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to that employer's employees, former employees (e.g., retirees) or beneficiaries (e.g., spouses, former spouses, dependents) of such employees, the plan will be considered a "single employer" plan and not a MEWA.

On Monday, the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments addressing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Day one of the oral arguments focused on the application of the “Anti-Injunction Act,” which could prohibit the Supreme Court from ruling on the constitutionality of PPACA (if it is considered a tax law) because the penalties would not become applicable until 2015. Although both parties agree that the Supreme Court’s review should not be barred by the…