Tax-Exempt Organizations Face New Tax Penalty on Excess Compensation — Due Diligence and Minimization

J. MARC FOSSE and SERENA AISENMAN, February, 2018 The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” added a new 21% tax penalty on “excess compensation” paid by most tax-exempt organizations to their top-five highest compensated employees. The penalty is found under section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) and it ties the amount of the […]

Tax Reform Provisions Affecting Employer-Provided Compensation and Benefits

J. MARC FOSSE, December 27, 2017 The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) recently signed into law affects many employer-provided benefits and employee compensation, beginning as soon as next week. This alert highlights the affected benefits and provides a short summary of how the Act will change the tax treatment of those benefits and […]

Section 409A Relief for Tax Payments from Section 457A Plans

J. MARC FOSSE and YATINDRA PANDYA, December 20, 2017 On December 8, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS) released Notice 2017-75 (the “Notice”), which provides limited relief from cer­tain penalties under section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) for tax payment distributions from a Code section 457A nonqualified deferred compensation arrangement (a […]

Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans May Need to Be Updated for Revised Claims Regulations Relating to Disability Determinations

J. MARC FOSSE, August 2017   While nonqualified deferred compensation plans (“Nonqualified Plans”) are generally exempt from most of the substantive provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), Nonqualified Plans are still subject to ERISA’s enforcement provisions, including claims regulations implementing section 503 of ERISA. For that reason, a Nonqualified Plan must […]