As you know, the 2020 Regular Session of the West Virginia Legislature commenced on January 8. As of this writing, the House has introduced 903 bills, while the Senate has introduced 467. We will be reporting on and tracking the progress of significant legislation during the course of the Session. During the legislative process, certain critical deadlines are imposed by the Legislature that impact the consideration of pending bills and their chances of success ...
Why is H-1B Filing Season Important? This is the only time of year (with minor exceptions indicated below) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) accepts H-1B specialty worker petitions for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, 2020 ...
On Jan. 8, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published an informational bulletin titled “Best Practices for Avoiding 340B Duplicate Discounts in Medicaid.”[1] The bulletin outlines seven regulatory strategies State Medicaid agencies may consider when developing policies for preventing the occurrence of duplicate discounts in Medicaid Fee-for-Services (FFS) and Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO) programs ...
The 2019 proxy season marked a year of continued changing voting behavior. Though patterns and trends of the past season do not seem to indicate changes beyond marginal impact, the 2019 season can serve to set expectations for the 2020 proxy season ...
New California laws could make it more difficult for employers to enforce employment arbitration agreements and now prohibit “no rehire” language in settlement agreements involving employment disputes. Arbitration Agreements The enforceability of employment arbitration agreements has long been under attack in California ...
With the New Year, California rings in a lot of legislative changes, including a new standard for evaluating independent contractor classifications. Here is what you need to know: Independent Contractors Effective Jan. 1, 2020, Assembly Bill 5 (AB-5) became law in California by adding section 2750.3 to the Labor Code. AB-5 is the legislative response to the California Supreme Court decision in Dynamex v ...
As part of Paraguay's commitment to the International Financial Action Task Force of Latin America (GAFILAT), in November 2019, the Executive Power enacted Law No. 6446 that creates a “General Directorate of People and Legal Structures and Final Beneficiaries ” Under the Ministry of Finance (hereinafter the Law), which will have the following functions: Acting as the authority of application, replacing the Treasury Law, of Law No ...
With the signing of a Protocol of Amendments (“PoA”) and the approval by the U.S. House of implementing legislation, the United States, Canada and Mexico are on track for final approval of the US-Canada-Mexico Agreement (the “USMCA”) by the middle of February 2020, which is the anticipated time frame for the vote by the U.S. Senate. If that proceeds as expected, the USMCA would take effect 90 days later, before the end of May ...
Summary of Public Policy and Prior Amendments The Minimum Fuels Storage Public Policy (the “Public Policy”) was released by Mexico’s Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) on December 12, 2017. The objective is to improve energy security in Mexico and ensure adequate energy supply and competitive prices, through the establishment of mandatory minimum fuel inventories and reporting obligations ...
In November 2019, the Trump administration issued unified agenda of regulatory and deregulatory actions. Within the United States Department of Labor, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) issued six notices – two in the prerule stage, three in the proposed rule stage, and one in the final rule stage. All of these actions are discussed in further detail below ...
Recent enforcement actions initiated by the Bureau of Industry and Security’s (“BIS”) Office of Antiboycott Compliance (“OAC”) serve as a warning to U.S. persons (including U.S. companies) with business interests in and around the Middle East. It is easy for the complacent to run afoul of OAC’s Antiboycott Regulations when evaluating and responding to otherwise routine documents such as a letters of credit, shipping certificates, or purchase orders ...
Following the discourse of the upcoming omnibus law, the government recently announced that it will submit omnibus draft bills on job creation (“Omnibus Law on Job Creation”) and taxation (“Omnibus Law on Taxation”) to the House of Representatives soon.Omnibus law has become an emerging issue ever since it was mentioned during the President’s inauguration speech on 20 October 2019 ...
On December 19, 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS issued final regulations (T.D. 9889), which provide much-anticipated guidance on tax-favored qualified opportunity zone investments. The 544-page regulation package generally retains the same approach and structure of the proposed regulations issued in October 2018 and April 2019 (prior Hanson Bridgett analysis available) ...
This week, Congress passed and President Trump is expected to sign a domestic spending package that includes significant changes affecting retirement plans in the SECURE (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement) Act, and a permanent repeal of the “Cadillac tax” on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage that was enacted with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The SECURE Act is the most comprehensive set of changes to retirement plan rules in many years ...
The DIFC has provided slightly more clarity as to how UAE Cabinet Decision 31 of 2019 (the Economic Substance Regulations, or ESR) will apply within Dubai’s financial free zone. Helpful as the guidance is, significant questions remain. The DIFC held a presentation on 17 December to discuss the Economic Substance Regulations. The first point of note was that all businesses in the DIFC must file an ESR notification by 31 March 2020 ...
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”), the interagency panel at the Department of the Treasury that reviews transactions for potential national security risks, recently released the public version of its latest annual report to Congress ...
On Dec. 3, 2019, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) in conjunction with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) issued a joint statement entitled “Providing Financial Services to Customers Engaged in Hemp-Related Businesses ...
According to the World Bank’s 2019 Doing Business index, Indonesia sits in 73rd position overall out of 190 countries in terms of ease of doing business. President Joko Widodo has set as a target increasing Indonesia’s ranking to 40th position. To boost investment and ease of doing business in Indonesia, in his inauguration speech on 20 October 2019, President Joko Widodo introduced the idea of enacting an Omnibus Law ...
Further to ourNewsletter related to the recent changes in the Russian currency regulations, we are sending you additional comments, which may help Swiss banks and bankers, who work with Russian clients.Taking into consideration the legislative amendments¹, we understand that the use of accounts opened with the banks located in Switzerland will be more convenient for the Russian currency residents (the “Residents”) ...
Will the release of its digital currency be China’s next salvo in its bid for world domination?One of the biggest developments in global finance has recently occurred, but not enough people are talking about it. It features technology, money and a battle between global superpowers ...
Before 2019 comes to a close, it may be worthwhile to review the state of your tax, estate, and charitable giving plans. Along with the typical end-of-year considerations, it is important to remain aware of the effects of the 2017 tax act (informally called the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,” and herein the “2017 Tax Act”) that altered many longstanding rules and assumptions ...
The EU is introducing an additional level of transparency in order to enhance the means tax authorities can use to detect potentially aggressive tax arrangements. In this light, EU Directive 2018/822/EU (hereinafter the “DAC 6”) imposes mandatory reporting of cross-border arrangements, affecting at least one EU Member State, that fall within one of a number of “hallmarks” ...
Carey partner, Diego Peralta, and associate, Vesna Camelio, contributed to the Q&A section of the Chilean chapter in the first edition of the “Foreign Direct Investment Regimes: A practical cross-border insight into FDI screening regimes”. To read the full article, click here: https://www.carey.cl/download/filebase/noticias/_notes/Chilean-chapter-ICLG-Foreign-Direct-Investment-Regimes ...
We would like to draw your attention to the latest amendments in currency control legislation, which are applicable to individuals - currency residents. On December 2nd, 2019, the President of the Russian Federation signed Federal Law No ...
In United States v. United States ex rel. Thrower, No. 18-16408, on November 14, a panel of the Ninth Circuit gave a skeptical reception to the Department of Justice (DOJ) argument that the district court’s denial of the government’s motion to dismiss a False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam complaint against Academy Mortgage Corporation (Academy) invaded the government’s “prosecutorial discretion ...
