MARINA VISHNEPOLSKAYA, ESQ., P.C.

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Introduction; Summary of Proposed Tax Reforms. On September 13, 2021, the Ways and Means Committee of the United States House of Representatives released a section-by-section summary (“Summary”) of revenue provisions accompanying a $3.5 trillion budget plan released by Senate Democrats on August 9, 2021.  The tax-increase provisions would be under Subtitle I of a forthcoming budget reconciliation bill that Congressional Democrats intend to approve witho...

On April 7, 2021, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued guidance interpreting the premium assistance requirements for employers providing group health plan continuation coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, as amended (“COBRA”). On May 18, 2021, Treasury and the IRS published Notice 2021-31 containing interpretive tax guidance for COBRA premium assistance, including the employment tax credit av...

On April 8, 2021, the IRS issued Notice 2021-25 (the "Notice") confirming availability of a temporary 100-percent deduction under section 274 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended ("Code") for meals ordered by employees for virtual events from restaurants. Code section 274(n) recently was amended by coronavirus relief legislation under section 210 of the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Relief Tax Act of 2020 (the "Taxpayer Certainty Act"). The provision permitted empl...

On December 21, 2020, Congress released the text of, and subsequently voted to approve the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the "Act"), more than 5,000 pages in length.  The Act provides extensive year-end Covid-19 relief. Section 210 of the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Relief Tax Act of 2020 (“Taxpayer Certainty Act”), part of the Covid-19 relief package, allows an employer a full deduction for certain business meals the expense for which an e...

Introduction

On August 8, 2020, the President of the United States issued an executive order, 85 Fed. Reg. 49,857 (Aug. 13, 2020) (“Presidential Memorandum”) directing the United States Secretary of the Treasury (“Treasury”) to authorize deferral by employers, generally deemed affected by Covid-19, a Presidentially declared disaster pursuant to section 501(b) of the Stafford Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq (“Affected Taxpayers”), of with...

Employees of foreign affiliate of a small business based in the United States count toward the 500-employee limit under SBA guidance issued on May 18, 2020 (SBA-2020-0030) for loan eligibility under the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), economic assistance for employers affected by COVID-19, authorized in section 1102 of the CARES Act, Pub. L. No. 116-136. SBA published on its website an overview on April 3, 2020, which provided criteria for determining affiliates of an employ...

On May 5, 2020, three senators who are leaders of their respective congressional tax-writing committees asked Treasury in a letter to reverse Notice 2020-32 issued last week denying deductions for certain small business expenses that are subject to loan forgiveness. Section 1102(a) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Pub. L. No. 116-127 (2020) (“CARES Act”) sets forth rules for forgiveness of certain covered loans to small business employers under the...