Publications Archive

Today, 80 percent of all 94 bankruptcy court districts have a local mediation rule of some type with more on the way. Of those 80 percent, however, a dozen or so bankruptcy court districts must rely on the local mediation rules of their district courts. 

Under the proposed regulations that were published in October 2018, however, for owners of a pass-through entity who have an eligible capital gain pass-through to them the 180-day reinvestment window generally begins on the last day of the pass-through entity’s tax year.

An increasing problem facing employers is the threat of class action lawsuits related to their use of background checks. In these lawsuits, plaintiffs claim that employers are violating a federal statute called the Fair Credit Reporting Act (the “FCRA”), which regulates, among other things, an employer’s use of background checks performed by third party providers. 

Approximately seven months have passed since the United States Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota vs. Wayfair, which held that a retailer without a physical presence in a state, but with a “significant quantity” of sales in that state, had sufficient nexus to take on the burden of sales tax collection. These seven months have provided more questions than answers about the short- and long- term impact of the decision on remote sellers and those that do business with them.

Most people understand trust arrangements are beneficial for their minor children. Until kids are financially mature, parents and grandparents do not want their children and grandchildren to receive an outright inheritance. However, more clients are beginning to realize the benefits of lifetime trust arrangements, and in particular, “beneficiary controlled trusts”.

The fiscal year 2020 H-1B lottery season is upon us, and uncertainty remains regarding the proposed regulation to tweak the H-1B lottery program. Notwithstanding the uncertainty, employers interested in filing H-1B lottery petitions are encouraged to start the process now.

For tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, a new centralized partnership audit regime generally applies to businesses taxed as partnerships for federal income tax purposes, and, with the exception of eligible partnerships that elect out of the centralized partnership audit regime, any imputed underpayments will be assessed at the partnership level rather than at the partner level.

Employer-sponsored parties are a time for employers to show appreciation for their employees and are important to employee morale. However, employer-sponsored parties can also be problematic for employers, especially where alcohol is served.

Plan sponsors and administrators have been eagerly awaiting IRS guidance on changes to the hardship withdrawal distribution rules made by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (the "Act"), which are effective for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2019.

On the eve of the Fiscal Year 2020 H-1B lottery season which opens for filing on April 1, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security has published proposed regulations to tweak the H-1B lottery program. The proposed regulations would require companies seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions (a/k/a H-1B lottery petitions) to complete an electronic registration with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) during a 14-day period leading up to the historical filing date (typically, April 1st each year).

What exactly is an estate plan? Webster defines “estate” as all of the things that a person owns and “plan” as something that a person intends to do. Accordingly, your estate plan sets forth your intentional decisions about the ultimate disposition of your property.

Following the judgement made in 2016, in a lawsuit filed by Aetna against a group of San Francisco Bay Area surgery centers, questions still arise from health care providers and suppliers around the country as to whether (and if so, how) they can offset the out-of-pocket cost-sharing amounts that patients have to pay for health services.

Mike Linder, Koley Jessen’s Environmental Practice leader, presented at an environmental conference in Washington D.C. on current trends in state and federal environmental regulations. Recent trends in environmental regulation include fundamental changes in direction in a number of areas. The presentation focused on those areas that will have the most impact on US business. 

The Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service issued initial proposed regulations, a Revenue Ruling, and draft Form 8996 and instructions for investments in qualified opportunity funds (“QOF”). What does this mean for you?

New Internal Revenue Code Section 1400Z creates qualified opportunity funds and qualified opportunity zones. This program is designed to incentivize the reallocation of capital to designated low-income census tracts. It presents a potentially remarkable opportunity for taxpayers to defer and reduce capital gain and subsequently exclude the appreciation of a qualified opportunity fund investment from income.

As CMS enhances its IT capabilities, providers must be vigilant about keeping their Medicare enrollment records up-to-date or else risk suspension or loss of their billing privileges.

As the number of states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana expands, employers are having to grapple with how they will address the questions that are likely to arise from the potential medical and/or recreational drug use by their employees.

A recent case issued by the Nebraska Supreme Court has estate planning and family law attorneys talking. The case is Stephens v. Stephens, 297 Neb. 188, 899 N.W.2d 582 (2017), and the result of this case may very well be more litigation to resolve the questions it is bound to raise. The solution to avoid being the person paying the legal fees associated with that litigation is a well-drafted premarital agreement.

Carve-out transactions create a path for sellers to discard businesses least aligned with core business strategies while also generating additional capital for the seller. Carve-out transactions invoke unique challenges compared to standard M&A transactions. This article contains a list of key issues that private equity firms should consider when planning and executing a carve-out transaction and navigating the post-closing exit and integration process.

As employers are well aware, premium processing is an optional service available for certain employment-based benefit requests which guarantees a response (not necessarily an approval) from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) within 15 calendar days of USCIS’s receipt of a petition.

On August 8, 2018, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) raided 11 agricultural businesses and executed 17 criminal arrest warrants for business owners

and managers charged with an alleged criminal conspiracy to exploit unauthorized workers for profit, fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in Northern and Central Nebraska.

On August 10, 2018, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed "The Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act" (the "Act") into law. The Act imposes a number of new constraints on Massachusetts employers seeking to enter into non-compete agreements with their employees.

For companies that have used the H-2B nonimmigrant visa program (the “H-2B Program”) over the last several years, it is understood that the demand for H-2B visas has skyrocketed. This unprecedented level of growth in demand resulted in the imposition of a lottery system for awarding visas for the second half of the 2018 fiscal year as well as 15,000 extra H-2B nonimmigrant visas being made available for the second year in a row. All signs point toward continued interest in the H-2B Program for the 2019 fiscal year. Employers interested in using the H-2B Program for the second half of the 2019 fiscal year should begin working through the necessary application steps within the next couple of months.

Employers are facing workplace retention challenges with increasing regularity. Whether this is the result of a shift in generational norms or a strong economy, employees seem to be more mobile than ever before.

It is increasingly common to see service animals in places of public accommodation, on public transit, and even in the workplace. However, the rising trend of animals in the workplace has given rise to potential conflicts and liability risks for employers.

A Grantor Retained Annuity Trust is a planning tool that you may use to transfer assets to your beneficiaries with little, or possibly no, wealth transfer tax costs. The primary benefit of a GRAT is to freeze the value of the property transferred to the trust, so that the future appreciation is transferred in a tax-efficient manner. The best assets to use with this technique are those that you expect to appreciate significantly in value, such as securities, business interests, or real estate.

Attorney Generals from Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana collectively filed an amicus brief in an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals case, Horton v. Midwest Geriatric Mgmt., LLC, requesting that the Eighth Circuit refrain from interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) to protect sexual orientation discrimination, as the Seventh and Second Circuits have done.

Last month, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Cory Gardner (R-Colorado) proposed highly anticipated bipartisan legislation that would allow individual states to determine their own approaches to marijuana within their borders.

This article briefly discusses four new laws that took effect on July 1, 2018. 

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law on December 22, 2017, doubling the amount a taxpayer may leave to his or her beneficiaries without paying the federal estate tax. However, this is one of the individual tax changes in the new law which “sunset” on December 31, 2025.

The Supreme Court announced its ruling today in the biggest sales tax case in 26 years. The ruling affects remote and online shopping by removing a limitation on a state’s ability to enforce its collection and remittance statutes against retailers who do not have a physical presence in the state.

The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (the “Act”)[1] amended Section 168(k) of the Internal Revenue Code to allow taxpayers to immediately depreciate or expense 100% of the cost of new and acquired qualified property[2] placed in service between September 27, 2017 and January 1, 2023.[3] In addition to increasing “bonus depreciation” from 50% to 100%, the Act makes “acquired property” eligible for immediate expensing.

Transactions for the purchase and sale of businesses are rarely all cash deals. No matter the transaction structure, the use of financing to consummate the purchase creates a new dimension and layers of complexity requiring additional scrutiny and analysis by a discerning seller (or its principals). This article highlights some of the key considerations in such instances.

Consistent with Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2017, the Secretaries of Labor and Homeland Security have announced that up to an additional 15,000 H-2B visas are available for FY 2018 on a first-come, first-served basis for those businesses that attest, under penalty of perjury, that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm, i.e., suffer a permanent and severe financial loss, if they do not receive all of the workers under the cap increase.

The Supreme Court’s Epic decision undoubtedly favors employers who currently have, or who in the future may have, a mandatory arbitration program. However, despite what some media outlets and commentators might say in the wake of the Epic decision, employers should carefully consider a number of factors before deciding to roll out such a program. 

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that it completed data entry for all Fiscal Year 2019 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in the lottery and now will begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the lottery.

Is your ERISA plan bonded or insured? Is there a difference? Why does it matter? This article addresses a compliance requirement that is often misunderstood–the fidelity bond requirement of ERISA and its relationship to fiduciary liability insurance.

Price maintenance is an important part of many companies’ strategies, especially those attempting to promote and brand themselves as a producer of high quality goods. While there are methods to impose certain resale prices, organizations have determined that enforcing MAP policies is an effective way to reinforce a company brand at a lower risk than attempting to navigate the current legal landscape of RPM agreements. However, MAP policies still require careful drafting, and a thorough understanding of the practical restraints it may be imposing, as each organization’s circumstances are different. 

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that it conducted a lottery on April 11, 2018, to randomly select enough H-1B cap-subject petitions to exhaust the H-1B visas available for Fiscal Year 2019.

Negotiating the terms and conditions of a commercial real estate lease can be a laborious process. Depending on the nature of the lease, the parties involved and the proposed use of the property, there may be only one or two major points to be negotiated, or there could be several.

In the digital age, it is the nightmare scenario for any business: the dreaded data breach. Every other week, it seems as though another high-profile company has fallen victim to cyber criminals and must issue a sweeping disclosure notifying customers and clients that their personal data may be at risk for improper use.

Smart gift planning includes combining a donor’s charitable intent with income tax efficiency. As a donor, you want to assure you are maximizing your gifts to your favorite charities, while also maximizing your personal income tax benefits. Gifts of long-term appreciated assets can achieve both objectives.

On March 23, 2018, President Trump signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (H.R. 1625) to fund the government until September 30, 2018. Included within the 878 page law is a paragraph authorizing the Secretary of Homeland Security, after consultation with the Secretary of Labor, to issue additional H-2B visas above the 33,000 limit for the second half of Fiscal Year 2018.

As employers are well aware, the Fiscal Year 2019 H-1B cap season is in full gear. In order to be considered for one of the 85,000 coveted H-1B visas, employers must file their H-1B cap petitions during the first five business days of April (April 2nd – April 6th, 2018) requesting that employment commence on October 1, 2018.

Section 1061 of the Internal Revenue Code, added by the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (hereafter simply referred to as the “Act”)[1], imposes a new three-year holding period for gains derived by a partnership that are passed through to the holder of a carried interest (or gains from the disposition of a carried interest) to qualify as long-term capital gains. This change is effective for any allocations of income or sales of carried interests on or after January 1, 2018, and it applies to newly-granted carried interests and existing carried interests alike.

Recent updates to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) "Work Plan" indicate that OIG has taken an interest in the utilization of certain off-the-shelf orthotic devices, and will therefore be paying closer attention to Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements of those products in 2018.

The Office of Inspector General ("OIG") recently published Advisory Opinion No. 17-03 reminding us that DMEPOS suppliers that have "consignment closet" arrangements with health care providers should bear in mind that failing to charge for products that are damaged, lost, or stolen after being delivered to the closet under the control of the provider may be treated as remuneration for purposes of the anti-kickback statute.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced today, March 1st, that it conducted a lottery yesterday, February 28th, to randomly select enough H-2B cap-subject petitions to exhaust the 33,000 H-2B visas that are available for the second half of Fiscal Year 2018.

The Business and Labor Committee of the Nebraska Unicameral heard testimony this month on a number of bills that would have various implications for Nebraska employers if ultimately signed into law. The following is a synopsis of the legislation presently before the Committee. To date, the Committee has not taken action on the bills outlined below or designated any as priority.

The Department of Labor issued regulations that revise the ERISA claims procedure regulations for employee benefit plans that provide disability benefits with an effective date of April 1, 2018.