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Compensation & Benefits

In the Payroll Mailbag: February ’25

01/23/2025
Tax-free business meals or taxable working lunch? … Are rent subsidies tax-free?

Experimental treatments are covered under the FMLA

01/23/2025
The Department of Labor has concluded in a letter to a medical organization that FMLA-covered leave taken by an employee with a serious health condition includes leave to participate in an experimental medical treatment.

Employer group not tax-exempt—employee discounts are taxable

01/23/2025
Small employers can band together for such laudable purposes as holding blood drives, flu-shot clinics or holiday toy drives. But there are limits to what a group of employers can do if it seeks tax-exempt status.

‘Sorry’ is easy to say and hard to correct

01/23/2025
Sorry, but no one told you a remote employee moved to another state, so you just kept withholding for the employee’s old state. This employee just received a W-2 reporting wages for the wrong state. How do you fix this? Is it fixable at all?

Et tu, reissued W-2s?

01/23/2025
If Payroll could fire bad employees, those who routinely lose their W-2s, refuse to have anything to do with your employee self-service portal and call for replacements at the last minute would be sacked in a heartbeat. Instead, you need a foolproof strategy to deal with reissued W-2s.

Form W-2c: The agony of errors

01/23/2025
The earlier you fix errors on your 2024 W-2s, the less likely it is you’ll suffer a stiff penalty from the IRS. Here’s the scoop.

Fed contractor pay-transparency rule scrapped

01/21/2025
With little fanfare, the Biden administration in its final days withdrew a proposed rule that would have required federal contractors to include compensation information in job ads aimed at filling positions connected to contracts with Uncle Sam.

When disaster strikes, create a crisis-support framework for your team

01/21/2025
Smoke fills the sky over Southern California neighborhoods as another fire season forces thousands to evacuate their homes. For HR leaders across the affected communities, the focus shifts from routine operations to a critical mission: supporting employees through a natural disaster. While we can’t control when disasters strike, we can control how we respond to our employees’ needs during these challenging times.

It’s not just the FLSA—monitor and comply with state and local wage-and-hour laws, too

01/15/2025
Make it a point to monitor state and local wage-and-hour laws and prepare in advance to comply.

IRS clarifies the parameters of Section 530 relief

01/13/2025
Way back in the dim mists of antiquity, the IRS embarked on a campaign to reclassify independent contractors as employees, sticking employers with huge tax bills. In response, Congress added Section 530 to the Revenue Act of 1978. As a result, the IRS was forbidden from publishing regulations or revenue rulings with respect to the employment status of any individual for purposes of payroll taxes. But this doesn’t mean the IRS can never issue guidance interpreting Section 530.