When the wind is at your back, you can afford to endure a relatively high-cost structure and intangible negatives associated with where you operate your business. However, good times don’t last forever and the idea of relocating your company to a more favourable environment shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Plus, you might want to make […]
Some original or current famous clothing designers are household names — including Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Liz Claiborne. What has allowed them to maintain control over their names, logos and clothing lines? It is often the registration of their trademarks. But when it comes to clothing, exactly what can and cannot be trademarked […]
Your business has unique products or services. What type of intellectual property protection do you need to make sure that your competitive advantage is not exploited by others? It is important to understand whether you should file for a patent, a trademark, copyright — or all three. While patents, trademarks and copyrights are all types of […]
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act contains a number of favourable provisions that will help Americans save more for retirement. However, the new law also contains an unfavourable provision that will affect non-spouse IRA beneficiaries who inherit accounts with substantial balances. As a result, some carefully constructed estate plans will be damaged. […]
The proposed Code Section 162(m) regulations were published in the Federal Register on December 20, 2019. The proposed regulations are extensive and cover a good amount of new ground. This IPB client alert covers some highlights of the proposals: 1. The covered employee “once-always” rule. 2. Grandfather rule for multi-year incentive […]
The following table provides some important federal tax information for 2020, as compared with 2019. Some of the dollar amounts are unchanged and some changed only slightly due to inflation. Social Security/ Medicare 2020 2019 Social Security Tax Wage Base $137,700 $132,900 Medicare Tax Wage Base No limit No limit Employee portion of Social Security 6.2% […]
Today’s companies have their hands full trying to police employees so they don’t visit non-business Web sites or send offensive e-mails. Now, there’s another legal worry: Ensuring that your employees don’t download or store material in violation of federal copyright laws. Legal experts say employers could face potential liability for not prohibiting employees from downloading and […]
Many financial frauds and deceptions fall into two basic categories: Misstatements on company financial reports (balance sheets, income statements, and so forth). Misappropriation of company assets. While the first type of fraud may seem more theoretical and therefore less worrisome, it can hurt your company almost as badly as the second kind — which is definitely not theoretical. […]
On December 20, President Trump signed into law the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act. It was part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act federal spending package. In general, the SECURE Act is intended to expand opportunities for individuals to increase their retirement savings and to simplify the administration of retirement plans. Here […]
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act was mainly intended to help individuals save more for retirement. But the new law also contains provisions that help simplify the administration of retirement plans for employers and allow more employees to participate in 401(k) plans. Here are some provisions that may affect business owners. Increased […]
In 2018 and 2019, there were approximately 5,000 federal lawsuits filed against hotels, restaurants, stores, and other places of public accommodation alleging that their websites violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). In all likelihood this number of lawsuits will increase in 2020 now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a […]
Comparative advertising is legal as long as it’s truthful. But the truth can be a difficult concept and competitors often sue for damages and seek injunctions to stop the ads. The courts don’t always side with the party who is offended by an advertisement. Here are two cases of companies that won in legal struggles with […]