Potentially fraudulent employee retention credit (ERC) claims are an issue of great concern to both Congress and the IRS, resulting in civil and criminal investigations of certain “ERC mill” promoters. Larger employers have seen these kinds of claims arise in due diligence when looking to purchase a smaller company. We discuss actions taken by the IRS to combat potentially fraudulent claims.

After months of partisan bickering and Senate inaction, Congress finally passed another round of COVID-19 relief legislation as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, P.L. 116-260, (“CAA”), which was signed into law on December 27, 2020. We provide a summary of the tax-related CAA provisions and key modifications to the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), before discussing President Biden’s tax agenda for 2021. The CAA’s tax provisions focus primarily on providing economic relief to taxpayers by expanding provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) and renewing extenders.

To refer to our initial analysis of the CARES Act, see our prior client alert, available here.

One of the most important issues that arises in any M&A transaction from a compensation perspective is the treatment of stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units (RSUs) or other compensatory equity awards, whether vested or unvested, held by executives and other employees in the transaction. Below is a high-level…

Welcome to Baker McKenzie’s Labor and Employment video chat series! In these quick and bite-sized video chats, our employment partners team up with practitioners in various areas of law to discuss the most pressing issues for employers navigating the return to work. This series builds on our recent client alert…

On Friday, March 20, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), US Department of Labor (DOL), and US Department of the Treasury published a joint news release (Release) regarding tax credits available to employers who will be required to provide paid sick and family care leave for COVID-19-related purposes under the Families First…

On December 20, 2019, the Treasury and IRS released proposed regulations1 implementing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s changes to section 162(m)’s $1,000,00 limit on the deductibility of “covered employee” compensation.2 In key part, the TCJA3 eliminated the exception from section 162(m) for performance-based compensation and expanded the covered employees…