The Obama-era MyRA program was designed for those who didn’t have access to a 401(K) or other retirement plan at work. The Treasury Department is terminating the program, according to the New York Times. The US Treasurer said in a statement that demand for the accounts was not high enough to justify the expense. The myRA program has cost $70…
Parties may consider Non-Administered Arbitration (“NAA”) to resolve their next dispute. NAA is an informal dispute resolution process designed to proceed without the involvement of a separate administrating entity such as the American Arbitration Association. Instead of a separate administering entity, the parties, and the arbitrator chosen by the parties, administer the proceedings. Rules for Non-Administered, Self-Administered, or Ad Hoc…
Online System Changes How Employees Initiate Discrimination & Harassment Claims The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has launched a new Online Inquiry and Appointment System. This system will permit electronic inquiries and requests for intake interviews. Previously, such inquiries and requests were done in person, through regular mail, or by telephone. The EEOC is launching this system in five…
On occasion, a plaintiff in litigation needs to stop the defendant from continuing to commit improper acts that harm the plaintiff. In order to stop or enjoin the defendant, the plaintiff must get the Judge’s immediate attention to demand that the defendant’s actions be immediately stopped. To determine whether injunctive relief should be issued, Ohio courts consider the following criteria:…
One of the most favorable and flexible recent changes to the federal estate tax system has been the advent of the concept of portability. By allowing a surviving spouse to succeed to the unused applicable exclusion amount of the decedent spouse (Deceased Spousal Unused Exclusion (DSUE)), the government has opened the door to much more flexible estate planning without a…
Ohio has adopted a new “parking lot law” regarding guns in the work place. The law restricts both public and private business entities from prohibiting persons with valid concealed carry weapons (“CCW”) permits from having weapons in their vehicle when parked on company property. If the CCW permit holder is not in the vehicle, the weapon must be locked in…
Many (if not most) of my business clients are taxed as partnerships and S-corporations, which are commonly referred to as “flow-through” entities, because they pay no corporate level taxes. Most headlines today are focused on how President Trump and Congressional Republicans will handle the corporate tax rate, i.e. the entity-level tax rate that C-corporations pay, and also the individual tax…
Representative Bill Seitz recently introduced a bill in the Ohio General Assembly that, if enacted, will bring significant changes to Ohio’s workplace discrimination laws. The most notable changes in House Bill 2 (H.B.2) are as follows: Shortened Statute of Limitations. H.B.2 will shorten the applicable statute of limitations for discrimination lawsuits under O.R.C. 4112 to one year. Currently, Ohio courts…
In Ohio, shareholders in a close corporation have fiduciary duties to one another. A close corporation is generally characterized as a corporation with few shareholders who own shares that are not traded on a securities market. Additionally, in a close corporation management and ownership typically overlap, restrictions exist on the free transfer of shares and there is an unmistakable resemblance…
With consistent weakness in department stores’ fourth quarter financials being widely reported in recent weeks, there’s quite a bit of buzz in the insolvency community that some form of a retail bankruptcy boom may be looming. In January, Macy’s and Kohl’s downgraded their earnings guidance following a 2.1% year-over-year decline in same-store sales in November and December, and Sears reported…
