Publications Archive

In October 2004 Congress enacted the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (the “Act”). The Act adds a new Section 409A to the Internal Revenue Code which significantly changes the operation and taxation of nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements (“NQDC”) for amounts deferred or that become vested on or after January 1, 2005.

Increased enforcement of existing immigration laws was one theme of this summer’s debate over comprehensive immigration reform. What many employers – even those who never deal with immigration officials – may not realize is they are on the front lines of that enforcement effort. More importantly, the federal government is stepping up both worksite enforcement and criminal prosecutions of employers, something that will impact virtually every employer.

On October 22, 2007, the Internal Revenue Service issued Notice 2007-86 which generally extends to December 31, 2008 previous transition relief that was scheduled to expire on December 31, 2007.

On October 23, 2008, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) adopted an interim final rule establishing the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (“TLG Program”). The TLG Program consists of two primary components: (i) a Transaction Account Guarantee Program (“TAG Program”), through which the FDIC will guarantee certain noninterest-bearing transaction accounts of participating depository institutions; and (ii) a Debt Guarantee Program, through which the FDIC will guarantee the payment of certain newly-issued senior unsecured debt of participating entities. The TAG program may be of special interest to bankers and their customers because of the unlimited amount of insurance coverage it provides for certain types of deposits.

Plenty of publicity surrounded the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the so-called "bailout" plan enacted by Congress due to the recent financial crisis. Little of the publicity, though, looked at the details of various aspects of the plan. One of those is the Capital Purchase Program, announced by the U.S. Treasury Department on October 14 and created pursuant to the Act's mandated Troubled Asset Relief Program. While most observers are aware the program will allow the Treasury Department to purchase senior preferred shares of qualified financial institutions desiring to participate in the program, the applicable terms vary for publicly held and privately held financial institutions

WARN stands for “Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification.” The WARN Act is a federal law requiring larger employers to give 60 days written notice in advance of plant closings or mass layoffs. It is intended to give displaced workers and their families transition time to seek alternate employment or training before the end of their employment.

On April 22, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives introduced identical legislation aimed at curtailing and preventing misclassification of workers by employers. The Employee Misclassification Prevention Act (EMPA) would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by requiring employers to maintain certain records for both employees and independent contractors in an effort to more effectively prevent employers from improperly classifying employees as independent contractors.

Recently the Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced that it is considering implementing a new rule that would revise recordkeeping requirements relating to classifying workers as exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). If implemented, the rule would result in more stringent disclosure and recordkeeping requirements for covered employers which exclude workers from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime requirements. If approved and implemented, the new rule will result in significant changes for employers.

The latest Banker's Email Update from Davenport Evans highlights recent action taken by the OCC to prohibit banks from charging "excessive" overdraft fees. The Update also discusses the first court challenge to the constitutionality of the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act and summarizes new regulatory changes from the Federal Reserve.