Preparing for open enrollment: Wellness plans’ smoking surcharge
Unhappy smokers are challenging the smoking surcharge in court, and some of their complaints have withstood preliminary motions to dismiss.
Phil Ash
Work Opportunity Tax Credit: Get it while it’s hot, hot, hot
Remember landing your first job? It was challenging. For some individuals, it can be almost impossible. One tax credit aims to help employers hire members of certain disadvantaged groups—the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.
If you like your 401(k) plan options, maybe you’d be interested in...
Third-party administrators must collect a lot of key information about employees in order to properly administer your 401(k) plan. The issue is how TPAs use this data outside the 401(k) plan. Unhelpfully, ERISA doesn’t classify employees’ personal data as a plan asset, so no fiduciary duties apply t
Friday wrap: Reporting overtime on 2025 W-2s, regulatory agendas, disaster tax relief and more
W-2 overtime reporting, DOL and IRS regulatory agendas, and more in our first autumn wrap.
Who do you tip?
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act allows employees to deduct $25,000 of tips on their 1040s through 2028. Tuesday, the Treasury Department released a draft list of 68 tipped occupations.
Employees’ attorneys are coming for your group health plan
Employees started suing group health plans last year using the 401(k) playbook—the choice of vendors and the hit to employees’ wallets. Those cases involved specific vendors. This latest case alleges a more general fiduciary breach and is a warning to employers to choose plan options carefully.
OBBBA: A problem with the increased dependent care assistance benefit
The OBBBA’s increase in tax-free dependent care benefits to $7,500 a year, from $5,000, beginning in January, would seem to provide some modest relief to working couples. But there’s more to consider.
Pre-Labor Day Friday wrap: Draft W4 reflects OBBBA’s changes, SSA may change W-2 e-filing procedures and more
Draft 2026 W-4, SSA feedback, DOL goes paperless and more in our end-of-summer wrap.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
This joyous moment in every parent’s life comes with some downsides—namely, the need to take time off to deal with visits to the principal’s office, school plays and class trips. States have laws on this subject.
OBBBA: Legislate in haste, ________ in leisure
There is no doubt Congress rushed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Not one hearing was held during which payroll pros were afforded the chance to point out the many pitfalls of the OBBBA’s no taxes on tips. And this has the makings of a Las Vegas-style hangover for the IRS and, tangentially, you.