If you are a business owner, then, you are familiar with the increase in regulations and the complexity of running a business. Keeping a business in compliance is more and more difficult due to the fast pace of law changes from different Federal, State and Local government entities and the allocation of more funding for the enforcement of these rules. Some of these examples in the first mid year of 2024 are (note this is not a comprehensive list):
Federal
- BOI requirement (FinCen) – We have written numerous posts about the Beneficial Ownership Interest. This is an additional Federal requirement subject to hefty penalties of $591 per day
- Overtime rules (Department of Labor) effective from July 2024, which will impact around 4.3 million employees – Overtime Pay & Final Rule: Restoring and Extending Overtime Protections
- Noncompete banning (FTC) – The Federal Trade Commission released in April 2024 a final rule banning the noncompete agreements at the Federal level which require the update or amendment of certain employment contracts
- Implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) – Under the new law, there are changes on the coverage, the types of employer requests permitted and forbidden, the types of accommodations automatically expected, and other items.
State (a couple of examples, but many changes at State and Local level)
- California – From July 2024, employers in California are required to have written workplace violence prevention plan, maintain a violent incident log, and provide workplace violence prevention training to employees.
- New Jersey and other States – Considering banning gas blowers – See article U.S. bans on gasoline-powered leaf blowers grow, as does blowback from landscaping industry
We should also consider recent Supreme Court decisions that generates a grey area in certain transactions or previous recognized positions. The Journal of Accountancy’s article mentioned AICPA & CIMA’s CEO Mr. Melancon who indicated that two cases “… introduce a level of uncertainty that makes some tax practitioners uncomfortable… We’d like to know something can be done and [that] there’s this precedent and there’s [an] interpretation that this supports a tax strategy. And there’s going to be a significant amount of uncertainty in these things going forward, absent some new, different court decisions.”
The cases are the following:
- Case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, that overturned Chevron USA (This case has made front page in the news) – The problem is that this requires independent judgement from the Court and not to follow IRS expertise and experience (not required to follow the Agency’s interpretation). In many tax topics, the IRS provides their interpretation and clarification in certain subjects. However, now, it does not bind the Court decision and potentially, the tax expert should interpret if an ambiguous scenario.
- Case Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the six year statute of limitation did not start until they started accepting credit cards. The problem is that in this case, the statute of limitation will not start until the taxpayer is injured, so even if regulation was set up in place, the statute might reset when the plaintiff suffer the loss or the negative action.
Link Journal of Accountancy – Melancon: Supreme Court decisions are ‘big deal’ for tax pros
In today’s challenging environment, you can rely on our team of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), Enrolled Agents (EAs) and other professionals to protect your business
