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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Guidance on Employer-Owned Life Insurance After PPA (PDF)
Excerpt: "PPA also added a new IRS reporting requirement under Section 6039I for employer-owned contracts issued after August 17, 2006. Last year, the IRS issued final regulations on this new requirement. (See our November 17, 2008 For Your Information.) The IRS has now issued Notice 2009-48, which provides additional guidance on employer-owned contracts after PPA." (Buck Consultants)


[Guidance Overview]
How Does 1,000-Hour Rule Apply to Non-Retirement Benefits?
Excerpt: "The 1,000-hour rule is best known in retirement circles but also applies to group welfare plans, with respect to nondiscrimination testing. Unfortunately, it is not applied on a consistent basis and does not apply to all benefits." (Workforce Management; free registration required)


[Guidance Overview]
Pennsylvania Legislation's Affect on Group Health Plans
Excerpt: "On June 10, Governor Edward G. Rendell signed into law four bills, each relating to significant health care initiatives. The new laws introduce COBRA-like requirements for small employers; extend the availability of health insurance coverage to certain older children; prohibit health care providers from seeking reimbursement for certain preventable medical errors; and reauthorize the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4)." (Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP)


[Guidance Overview]
More IRS Q&As on COBRA Premium Assistance Subsidy
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: Up to now, employers were caught between a rock and a hard place in close cases of involuntary termination. Treat the employee as eligible for the subsidy (based on a determination of involuntary termination) and risk being challenged by the IRS and then not getting reimbursed or, worse yet, getting hit with employment tax penalties for improperly claiming the tax credit. But treat the employee as ineligible (based on a determination of voluntary termination) and risk being reversed in a DOL expedited review procedure (which applies a 'de novo' standard rather than a reasonableness standard). The rock just got a little softer with this announcement of the IRS's reasonable determination standard for purposes of claiming the payroll tax credit. As a result, employers may wish to consider erring on the side of finding involuntary termination when there are reasonable arguments going each way." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)


Milwaukee Paid Sick Leave Found Unconstitutional
Excerpt: "On June 12, 2009, the Milwaukee County Circuit Court . . . issued its decision in the Milwaukee Paid Sick Leave Ordinance . . . case. The Court found the Ordinance to be unconstitutional, invalidly enacted, and, consequently, unenforceable. Accordingly, businesses which employ workers in the City of Milwaukee will not have to comply with the Ordinance's mandates. A copy of the decision can be found at http://www.michaelbest.com//files//upload/sick-leave-decision.pdf." (Michael Best & Friedrich LLP)


Self-Insured Employers Are Particularly Concerned the Mental Health Parity Act May Increase Their Healthcare Costs
Excerpt: "On an employer-by-employer basis, the financial impact of the act can be evaluated by considering two factors: the current level of mental-health and substance-abuse coverage; and the percentage of covered members reaching the current treatment limits. Plans that have comprehensive mental-health and substance-abuse benefits in place already will be less likely to experience an increase in costs than plans that offer limited services or have high co-pays and deductibles." (Human Resource Executive Online)


Loopholes in Massachusetts Health Care Law Leave Room for Limits on Coverage
Excerpt: "The state's pioneering healthcare law requires residents to have insurance that meets minimum standards, but regulators are discovering many employers' plans test the limits by exploiting loopholes in the rules. Regulators yesterday said that reviews of scores of health plans show many cap the benefits insurers pay each year on prescription drug coverage, exclude maternity coverage for dependents, or place an annual overall dollar limit on benefits. Jamie Katz, general counsel for the Connector Authority, which oversees the state's health initiative, said the gaps raise 'difficult issues' because companies are assuming their plans are adequate in the absence of specific regulations that say otherwise." (The Boston Globe)


How Congress Might Tax Your Health Benefits
Excerpt: "Lawmakers are considering taxing [health benefits] to help pay for ambitious plans to overhaul the U.S. health system, estimated to cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years. There's a lot of money at stake: Because health benefits are excluded from payroll and income taxes, the U.S. Treasury lost out on $226 billion in 2008, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. In an estimate circulating this week, the committee says taxing workers' health benefits above a certain threshold could bring in $418.5 billion over 10 years." (Kaiser Family Foundation)


FSAs Could Be Sacrificed in Hunt for Health Overhaul Money
Excerpt: "FSAs, which allow consumers to put aside before-tax dollars to pay for medical expenses, are getting close scrutiny as Congress scours the health system for money to finance an ambitious expansion of insurance. The Joint Committee on Taxation told Senate leaders recently they could collect $68.6 billion over 10 years by abolishing the accounts, along with separate ones in which employers contribute money for workers to use for health care expenses. Eliminating both types of accounts would pay for four percent or more of the estimated $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion cost of expanding coverage to the 46 million uninsured." (Kaiser Family Foundation)


Small Companies Seen as Benefiting from Healthcare Reform
Excerpt: "Small businesses in the United States are suffering great harm under our current healthcare system and will likely fare far better under a substantially reformed system along the lines of what is currently being debated in Washington -- as long as such a system offers appropriate levels of assistance to small businesses in meeting their healthcare obligations." (Small Business Majority)

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Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

[Guidance Overview]
The IRS Says, Unofficially, We Want to Save Employers $$ on Cell Phone Taxes
Excerpt: "An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official, in an anonymous Reuters interview, asserted the tax agency is actually trying to save employers money by revamping the way employers and workers account to the IRS for the use of an employer-provided cell phone. The IRS this week called for public comment on its suggestions that included letting employers deduct the entire sum of a worker's cellphone use if a worker can establish he or she uses a personal phone for some period, and letting employers use statistical sampling to generalize about usage . . . . 'Minute by minute documentation really doesn't make any sense -- we've been hearing all about it, and we said yes it makes no sense,' the unnamed official told Reuters. The IRS' proposed changes are intended to 'reduce how much employers have to spend trying to comply with the tax law,' the official added." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)


[Guidance Overview]
Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance Standards for TARP Recipients
Excerpt: "The new interim final rule will be effective upon publication in the Federal Register, which is expected to occur on Monday, June 15. The new interim rule clarifies that the executive compensation and corporate governance standards described in the rule generally do not apply until the final rule is formally published in the Federal Register. The only exception is the 'say on pay' shareholder resolution, which became effective on February 17, 2009 (the date ARRA was enacted)." (McGuireWoods LLP)


[Guidance Overview]
Final Executive Compensation Rules for TARP Recipients and Proposed Legislation for All Public Companies (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt: "The Interim Final Rule (the 'Rule') consolidates and supersedes the prior executive compensation guidance and adopts additional standards. Generally, the provisions of this Rule are effective immediately upon publication in the Federal Register (scheduled for June 15th), and to the extent previous contractual provisions are not inconsistent, such provisions shall remain effective and continue to apply to TARP recipients. For example, TARP recipients that agreed not to claim a deduction for compensation during a taxable year in excess of $500,000 for certain executive officers shall continue to be required to forego such deduction. On the same day that the Rule was released, Treasury announced that it will pursue two pieces of executive compensation legislation that would apply to all public companies." (Groom Law Group)


[Guidance Overview]
Pfizer Dealt Setback in Severance Benefit Court Battle
Excerpt: "A federal judge in New Jersey ruled against Pfizer in a dispute over severance benefits arising out of the deal for it to acquire rival Pharmacia. U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey asserted that Pfizer improperly denied $158,250 in benefits to former Pharmacia Corp. Director Vasantha Nair when Nair was stripped of her job responsibilities. Chesler rejected Pfizer's argument that Nair maintained the same job title and compensation and did not suffer a demotion as a result of the deal; a demotion is often a triggering event to pay benefits." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)


[Guidance Overview]
Obama Administration Releases Executive Compensation Principles and Proposals for U.S. Public Companies (PDF)
6 pages. (Frederic W. Cook, Inc.)


[Guidance Overview]
Treasury Department and SEC Announce New Executive Compensation Initiatives
Excerpt: "The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced several initiatives that affect all public companies regardless of whether they participate in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) as modified by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act)." (McDermott Will & Emery)


Reining in Executive Compensation
Excerpt: "While the administration is keeping a hands-off approach, thus far, to imposing salary ceilings on all companies, there continues to be increased focus on more transparency for executive compensation. New rules expected to be released by the SEC in July will mandate additional proxy-statement disclosures, including 'say on pay' and information about potential conflicts of interest by comp consultants." (Human Resource Executive Online)


Salaried Chrysler Retirees Get Some Good News on SERP
Excerpt: "According to the Detroit Free Press, about 1,000 salaried employees who had non-qualified pension benefits through the automaker's Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan faced losing all those benefits because of the bankrup.tcy. But, according to the report, Chrysler said Friday that those benefits would be resumed in full until the salaried retiree reaches age 62. Salaried retirees who are 62 or older, though, still would lose those specific pension benefits. About 700 salaried retirees in that group are 62 and older now; the rest are under age 62, according to the Free Press." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)


Employee Ownership Update for June 12, 2009
NCEO Executive Director Corey Rosen discusses Cleveland's plan to create worker-owned cooperatives in the green business sector; fellowships awarded by Rutgers University to study shared capitalism; the performance of companies in the Employee Ownership Index published by Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP; a study finding that executive equity ownership among company founders has declined in pre-IPO companies; and a proposal to escrow a portion of executive equity compensation for a defined period. (National Center for Employee Ownership)

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Webcasts and Conferences

ARRA: Implementing the COBRA Subsidy, Electronic Medical Records, and HIPAA Updates
in Washington on June 26, 2009
presented by International Society of CEBS - Pacific NW Chapter

Health and Welfare Plan Management for Mid-Sized Employers Conference
in Nevada on September 13, 2009
presented by University Conference Services

Online Benefits Enrollment Webinar
Nationwide on June 18, 2009
presented by Benefit Software Inc.

Pension Plan Management Today: Crisis or Opportunity? Webcast
Nationwide on June 25, 2009
presented by McHenry Partners

Webcast: Qualified Plans in a Challenging Economy
Nationwide on June 24, 2009
presented by NIPA and Wolters Kluwer Law & Business (CCH, TAG and Aspen Publishers)

( Click to post your webcast or conference )

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Press Releases

Fiduciary360 Relocates Offices to Accommodate Growth
Fiduciary360 (fi360)

( Click to post your press release )

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Employee Benefits Jobs

Trust Administration Supervisor
for Associated Pension Consultants
in CA

Consultant
for The Paragon Consulting Group, Inc.
in CA

401(k) Plan Administrator
for TPA Firm located in South Florida
in FL

Sr. Product Manager
for Federated Investors, Inc.
in PA

401 (K) Recordkeeper
for Northwestern Bank
in MI

( Click to post your job opening | View all jobs | RSS feed of all jobs )

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Handy Links:

• View Today's Active Message Threads
• Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
• Employee Benefits Library

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