As the fiscal year came an end at midnight on September 30, the House and Senate were unable to reach an agreement to fund the federal government and avoid a government shutdown. As a result, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued the order to implement the shutdown of the federal government. Although essential functions such as public safety and benefit payments will continue, the shutdown impacts all agencies funded through the annual appropriations process ...
On June 30, 2020, the Senate passed an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to keep the program operating until August 8, 2020. On July 1, 2020, the House also approved the extension for the program which was set to end on June 30. The President is expected to sign the extension shortly ...
After months of predictions of a possible Democratic wave,Tuesday’s election delivered mixed results. Joe Biden appears poised to narrowly defeat President Trump after one of the most contentious election cycles in recent memory. Republicans are favored to retain their Senate majority despite having to defend twice as many seats as their Democratic counterparts ...
Unexpectedly siding with the liberal wing of the Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch penned a 6-3 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, holding that Title VII’s prohibition on sex-based discrimination also covers sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. The Court’s decision dealt a historic victory for proponents of expanding gay and trans protections for workers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...
Yesterday, in a closely-followed case, the Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal brought by the Domino’s pizza chain, which sought to overturn the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision that entities selling online must make their websites and apps accessible to people with disabilities ...
The U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) issued a determination at the end of 2017, finding that solar panel imports are hurting domestic businesses that operate in the solar industry. The ITC’s determination was issued in connection with a trade case filedby a Georgia-based company, Suniva, Inc., shortly after filing for bankruptcy protection. SolarWorld Americas, Inc. joined Suniva’s petition ...
The U.S. Copyright Office has issued a final regulation (37 CFR §202.4) permitting a single, “group” registration for “Short Online Literary Works.” To be eligible, each of the works included in the registration “must be published as part of a website or online platform, including online newspapers, social media websites, and social networking platforms ...
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation is sponsoring the Save Small Business Fund—a grantmaking initiative offering short-term relief for small employers who are struggling during the COVID-19 outbreak. The fund will provide $5,000 grants to small employers in the United States and its territories that must be applied toward business expenses ...
On April 2, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued afinal borrower applicationand provided lenders with therequired datathe federal government will collect electronically to guarantee the loans. The lender application form requires the lender to certify they have gathered the requisite information from the applicant, as outlined in the updated borrower application form ...
On Thursday, April 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued Notice 2020-23 (the “Notice”), updating and expanding the relief granted by Notices 2020-18 and 2020-20. Notice 2020-23 postpones tax filing and payment deadlines until July 15, 2020, for many taxpayers in order to grant some amount of relief to individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations and trusts/estates amid the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis ...
On May 13, 2020, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued final regulations under Section 385 of the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), T.D. 9897 (“Final Regulations”), which address the classification of certain related party debt as stock or equity for U.S. Federal income tax purposes ...
On Friday, March 27, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued Notice 2020-20, which postpones the filing and payment deadline for any taxpayer who is required to file Form 709 (U.S. Gift and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Return) or who has Federal gift or generation-skipping transfer tax payments due on April 15, 2020 ...
On September 22, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released its first-ever proposed rule outlining a test for when a worker is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In its proposed rule, the DOL has created a new framework for the well-established “economic reality” independent contractor test ...
Hackers delight in targeting U.S. companies during the holiday season triggering a year-end spike in cyber-attacks, with Carbon Black reporting a 57.5 percentincrease in attempted cyber-attacks during past holiday seasons. This year we can expect that threat actors across the globe will remain online throughout the holiday season, looking to capitalize on the distraction of the holidays and the increased internet traffic that comes with online holiday shopping ...
In its 1993 decision in U.S. v. Rohm & Haas, the Third Circuit held that EPA could not recover CERCLA oversight costs for supervising a private party removal action. The Court reasoned that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in National Cable Television Ass’n, Inc. v. U.S. barred recovery of such costs “unless the statutory language clearly and explicitly requires that result ...
Justice Kavanaugh’s first authored opinion as a Supreme Court Justice inHenry Schein, Inc. v. Archer and White Sales, Inc., No. 17-1272, 586 U.S. ____ (2019) further cements the Supreme Court’s stance on arbitration. Over the years, the Supreme Court has consistently held in favor of arbitration and rejected attempts by parties and the lower courts to ignore binding arbitration clauses. For instance, inAT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 131 S. Ct ...
On April 2, 2018, the United States Supreme Court in Encino Motor Cars, LLC v. Navarro, Justice Thomas writing for the majority, held that car dealership “service advisors” are “salesm[e]n… primarily engaged in… servicing automobiles” and therefore are exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements under 29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(10)(A) ...
The Veterans Administration (VA) maintains the Vendor Information Pages (VIP) database of Veteran-owned small businesses (VOSB) and service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB). This database is available at www.vip.vetbiz.va.gov. The VIP database is managed by VA’s Center for Veterans Enterprise (CVE) who determines whether an offeror is eligible to be listed on the database ...
The False Claims Act (“FCA”) is one of the most powerful anti-fraud weapons available to the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”). It permits treble damages and makes penalties available for each false claim the defendant submitted to a federal payor. The DOJ effectively deployed the FCA against mortgage lenders in the aftermath of the sub-prime lending crisis to obtain, in some cases, billion-dollar settlements ...
What Happened Last week, the chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., India's fourth largest information technology company, admitted to a stunning fraud. Fraudulent entries in the company's financial statements totaled in excess of US$ 1 billion, as compared to the actual financial state of the company. In response to the fraud, DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd., a local affiliate of Bank of America Corp ...
As the first of several deadlines under the Qualified Opportunity Zone (“QOZ”) program rapidly approaches, investors still on the sidelines are discovering that time is running out on the ability to take advantage of the full suite of tax benefits under the program. December 31, 2019 marks the last day in which investors may roll over capital gains into Qualified Opportunity Funds (“QOF”) and obtain a 15% reduction in the amount of the deferred gain ...
