Last month, the IRS issued new guidance on the tax treatment of uncashed distribution checks from qualified retirement plans. In Revenue Ruling 2019-19, the IRS ruled that a participant's failure to cash the required distribution check she received from a qualified plan did not permit her to exclude the distribution from her taxable income or alter her employer's obligation to withhold taxes from the distribution and report it as taxable income ...
Elite Dental Associates, Dallas (“Elite”) has agreed to pay $10,000 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and to adopt a corrective action plan to settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule[1]. According to OCR, Elite is a privately owned dental practice in Dallas, Texas, providing general, implant, and cosmetic dentistry ...
In early August 2019, the Indonesian Minister of Manpower amended Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Regulation Number 19 of 2012 on The Requirements for Outsourcing (“MOMR 19/2012”) by issuing Minister of Manpower Regulation Number 11 of 2019 on the Second Amendment to Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Regulation Number 19 of 2012 on The Requirements for Outsourcing (“MOMR 11/2019”) ...
The Public Prosecutors’ Department in Dubai has the power to impose fines with respect to certain criminal misdemeanors and offences[i] without being required to refer the matter to a Court of Law. Such fines are issued under a Penal Order. This power stems from Dubai Law No. 1 of 2017, which authorises the Attorney General of Dubai to prescribe the offences and the corresponding fines which may be the subject of a Penal Order ...
CFIUS inbound investment national security review expanding to certain non-controlling foreign investments in critical technology, critical infrastructure, and sensitive personal data, as well as to certain real estate transactions. The U.S. Treasury Department published proposed rules in the Federal Register on Sept. 24, 2019, concerning changes to the review process for foreign investment conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) ...
On September 18, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom approved Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) to limit the classification of workers as independent contractors in the state. The new law, effective January 1, 2020, will increase payroll tax responsibilities for California companies that must reclassify workers as employees ...
On 3 October 2019, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) published its groundbreaking ruling in case C-18/18 establishing that the EU enables national courts to order information societies such as Facebook to remove defamatory information. This also encompasses equivalent versions of previously declared illegal information. In doing so, the ECJ effectively held that EU law does not preclude injunctions issued by national courts from producing worldwide effects ...
There is an ongoing controversy relating to search engine advertising. In particular regarding the legality of purchasing search terms incorporating third-party trademarks. In seeking a reasonable legal standard, this article discusses the latest legal development in trademark, unfair trading practices, marketing, and competition Law ...
FDA announced it will open a public docket and hold an Immunology Devices Panel meeting to deliberate the potential for patients who receive medical device implants that contain select metal or metal alloys to develop immune and inflammatory reactions. The panel may provide input on scientific information the FDA should consider as part of premarket review and postmarket surveillance of metal-containing implants and dental amalgams ...
As investor interest in qualified opportunity zones (“QOZ”) grows, both qualified opportunity funds (“QOFs”) and investors should be aware of the benefits of organizing QOFs as C-Corporations. C-Corporation QOFs may take advantage of the reduced corporate income tax rate of 21 percent and the benefits under Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) ...
In its July 24, 2019 judgment (Case: 5 Sa 676/19), Hamm State Labor Court issued a ruling as to whether employers are obligated to also notify employees who are out of work due to long-term illnesses that their vacation entitlement will expire by December 31 of the calendar year or by March 31 of the subsequent year if those employees fail to take their vacation days. The court denied this on convincing grounds. The final verdict, however, will come from the Federal Labor Court ...
The works council may demand access to the employees’ payroll. Considerations under data protection law do not require anonymization or pseudonymization. Federal Labor Court, May 7, 2019 – 1 ABR 53/17 FACTS OF THE CASE A company granted the works council access to its electronic employee salary file – the payroll showing gross salaries, while stripping employees’ names from the list, thus in anonymized (more correctly: pseudonymized) form ...
Federal Labor Court, June 12, 2019 - 1 AZR 154/17. There is no general prohibition of deterioration that applies to retirement benefits in the case of one or several transfers of businesses pursuant to Section 613a German Civil Code. This has now been confirmed by the Federal Labor Court in a recent decision ...
Half days of leave granted by the employer may be claimed again by the employee due to inadmissible fulfillment of the vacation entitlement. Baden-Württemberg State Labor Court, March 6, 2019, 4 Sa 73/18 Employees may not demand half days of leave from employers as part of their statutory minimum leave. If employers nevertheless grant half days of leave, this does not comply with their obligation to grant proper leave, at least as far as the minimum leave is concerned ...
Stuttgart Labor Court, April 30, 2019 – 4 BV 251/18 Warnings by which employers are reprimanding the exercise of office by works council members and threatening sanctions in accordance with Section 23 Works Constitution Act (warnings under works constitution law) may not be entered in the personnel files of works council members irrespective of their lawfulness ...
After Brexit has already been postponed several times, the next deadline will now expire on October 31, 2019. With the new Prime Minister at the helm, it is becoming more likely every day that the UK will leave the EU without a withdrawal agreement entering into force. Obviously, UK citizens who live and work in Germany are particularly affected. The same also applies to employers in Germany employing UK citizens ...
The Ministry of Manpower recently issued Decree of the Minister of Manpower No ...
A recent court ruling from Gulating lagmannsrett (Court of Appeal) states that bonus payments are not covered by the principle of equal treatment for temporary agency workers, cf. LG-2018-162656. The ruling has been appealed, and the result of the appeal to the Supreme Court will be of great importance to many companies and employees of temporary work agencies ...
On Tuesday, Sept. 24, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released the long-anticipated final rule for overtime exemptions, which alters the salary thresholds for several of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exemptions. Under the final rule, the salary threshold levels for the white-collar exemptions and the highly compensated employee exemption were increased, making it more difficult for an employee to be classified as exempt under the FLSA. As a result, an estimated additional 1 ...
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced its Final Rule increasing the minimum salary level employees need to be paid in order to be deemed an exempt white collar employee, provided the employees otherwise meet the applicable duties and salary basis tests. The rule has been long-awaited since the predecessor Obama administration-era rule was enjoined by a Texas federal court in 2016 ...
A recent ruling of the Finnish Supreme Court is a great reminder for employers what is to be taken into consideration when entering into termination agreements with employees. In general, the employer and the employee may, at any time during the employment relationship, mutually agree to terminate the employment relationship. Freedom of contract applies and a mutual termination agreement is, per se, a valid and legally binding agreement, if the agreement in concluded appropriately ...
As early as September 23, 2019, the United States House of Representatives is expected to vote on the widely anticipated Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act ...
On Thursday, September 12, the Third Circuit decided United States ex rel. Chang v. Children’s Advocacy Center of Delaware, No. 18-2311. In a precedential decision, the panel held that when a relator has not requested a hearing on a government motion to dismiss a federal False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam action, the court is not required to hold an in-person hearing before dismissing the action ...
