| Issues and Answers | ||
| Can an employee take leave to care for an injured veteran? | |||
|
| |||
|
| Test Your Human Resources Knowledge | ||
|
| Labor Law Journal Submissions | ||
|
| Human Resources Links | ||
|
| Labor Arbitrators' Awards and Biographies | ||
The Spencer’s Benefits Reports is a summary of the week's news items posted in the WHAT'S NEW pages of Spencer’s Benefits Reports Online. For questions regarding this email service, contact Customer Service at (800)449-9525.
The U.S. Master Pension Guide reflects the latest regulations, rulings and cases for qualified retirement plans, surveying the different type of plans from which an employer may choose, and describing the procedures for obtaining plan qualification.
Links within news stories display full text documents including legislation, regulations, court decisions, rulings and government reports.
The first time you click on a link you will be taken to the standard IRN login page (or IP Login page), where you will need to enter your ID and password. Subsequent links will take you directly to the desired document.
Learn about a 7 day free trial will allow you to click on the links within the news stories and see the full text documents.
Firms with more than 50 workers that did not offer health insurance coverage to their workers would have to pay a penalty of $750 for each full-time worker who obtained subsidized coverage through the insurance exchange, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, an amendment introduced in the Senate on November 18 as a substitute to H.R. 3590 by Sens. Harry Reid (Nev.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Christopher Dodd (Conn.), and Tom Harkin (Iowa)…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
The Senate health care reform bill introduced on November 18 would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $130 billion over the 2010-2019 period, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
In cases where an employer that is subject to COBRA and responsible for the 65% COBRA tax subsidy does not have enough payroll tax liability from which to recover the subsidy amount, the Internal Revenue Service treats the excess as a tax overpayment to be refunded to the employer, the agency clarified in a September 25 letter to Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa)…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
Benefits costs and wages both rose 0.4% for the period from July 2009 through September 2009, according to the most recent Employment Cost Index from the Department of Labor,s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In three of the last four quarters of BLS statistics, benefits costs rose more slowly than salaries; however, during the last ten years, benefits increases typically have outpaced increases in wages and salaries…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has published a notice in which the agency for the third time extends the effective date of its final regulations to implement provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) that amended the statutory exemption set forth in ERISA Secs. 408(b)(14) and 408(g) relating to the provision of investment advice by a fiduciary adviser to participants in participant directed individual account plans (such as 401(k) plans) and individual retirement accounts. Notice of the extension, which now goes to May 17, 2010, was published in the November 17 Federal Register…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has issued final regulations pertaining to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) that amend the agency’s existing rules on benefits payable in terminated single-employer plans to address “a narrow but important issue” regarding the PBGC’s guarantee of benefits for participants who are serving in the uniformed services at the time that their pension plan terminates. The final regulations appeared in the November 17 Federal Register…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations relating to options granted under an employee stock purchase plan as defined in IRC Sec. 423, and that also include related provisions under IRC Secs. 421 and 422. The final regulations were published in the November 17 Federal Register…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations governing the return and information statement requirements under IRC Sec. 6039 that reflect changes to that section made by the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. The final regulations, which relate to statutory stock options, appeared in the November 17 Federal Register…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
In comments recently submitted to the Internal Revenue Service, the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) and the American Benefits Council call for the IRS to provide “clear but flexible parameters” regarding combined defined benefit/401(k) plans under IRC Sec. 414(x). The organizations submitted their comments in response to Notice 2009-71, which requested comments relating to eligible combined plans under Sec. 414(x)…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
For the last few years, states have been leading the way toward more comprehensive health care coverage to ensure that more people have or can obtain health insurance. Because of the potential impact of this ongoing activity on employer-provided health insurance benefits, Spencer’s Benefits Reports provides regular updates about state health care reform…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
For 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided incentive payments totaling more than $92 million to more than 85,000 physicians and other eligible professionals who successfully reported quality-related data to Medicare under the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), according to a November 13 CMS report. For 2007, the CMS paid $36 million in PQRI incentives to 56,700 eligible professionals. In 2007, eligible professionals could only participate in the program during a six-month reporting period, whereas in 2008, the program expanded to allow reporting for either a six-month or a 12-month period, the CMS explained…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
Arbonne International LLC, a large skin care products company with a distribution center in Greenwood, Ind., has agreed to pay $30,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana (Civil Action No. 1:09-CV-0354-LJM-TAB)…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
The actual future impacts of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, H.R. 3962, “are very uncertain,” according to a November 13 memorandum from Richard S. Foster, the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which estimates the financial and coverage effects of the non-tax provisions in the proposed legislation…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
In final regulations issued in December 2008, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation changed its methodology for the valuation of annuities under terminating single-employer plans and multiemployer plans involved in a mass withdrawal. The new methodology seeks to provide a better fit for average group annuity market prices than the PBGC’s previous practice. The recalibration of the annuity rates reflected in the final regulations results in the same annuity rates remaining in effect for three months…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico has issued an order that requires.Caribbean International News Corporation to restore more than $1.2 million to the El Vocero de Puerto Rico Union Employees Savings and Investment Plan, a retirement plan established for the benefit of the company’s unionized employees. The case is Solis v. Caribbean International News Corp. (Civil Action No. 09-CV-2064)…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
Effective health care reform could save as much as $3,000 per employee in 2019, according to a recent report from Hewitt Associates commissioned by the Business Roundtable. In the report, Health Care Reform: The Perils of Inaction and the Promise of Effective Action, Hewitt points out the potential benefits of revamping the nation’s health care system, if done wisely, and the pitfalls of inaction…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
At a press briefing on November 9, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs indicated the Administration would consider an alternative vehicle such as budget reconciliation for getting a health care reform bill to the President’s desk by the end of 2009 if one cannot be sent through the normal legislative process…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has decided not to proceed with a proposed amendment to IASB Statement No. 19, Employee Benefits, that would have deleted the requirement to use market yields on government bonds when there is no deep market on high-quality corporate bonds at the end of the reporting period for determining market yields…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
On November 9, President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Joshua Gotbaum to serve as the director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Mr. Gotbaum, who currently is an operating partner at Blue Wolf Capital, has helped manage and advise public, private, and nonprofit institutions for 30 years…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
The Internal Revenue Service has announced that it has selected four new members and a chairman for the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC). The Treasury Department and the IRS Commissioner have approved the new members to serve a three-year term that began in October 2009 and will end in October 2012…
Read IRN » (ip access user) » (Read Intelliconnect) »
CCH® is the leading provider of information covering Human Resources, Employment and Labor Benefits, Pensions, Payroll, Safety, and Workers Compensation. For more information about our products and services, go to http://hr.cch.com/ or call 800-449-9525. This newsletter is copyrighted by CCH® and may be redistributed only for non-commercial purposes and only in its entirety, specifically including the CCH® headers, this paragraph and the CCH® copyright line. No other redistribution or re-purposing, including but not limited to use on a web site, intranet or extranet, is permitted without prior written permission of CCH®.
If you would like to unsubscribe from this newsletter click here. To check your email preferences or make changes to your email newsletters click here.
©2009, CCH. All Rights Reserved.
