Practice/Organization Description
Morgan Lewis lawyers bring “inside the Beltway” experience to payroll tax, employee/executive fringe benefit, and contingent workforce issues. With an emphasis on planning and controversy work, we help clients develop tax minimization plans, conduct compliance reviews, and settle tax audits. A number of our team members have prior regulatory and litigation experience with the US Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service. Our tax litigators have tried several cases of first impression involving these areas.
Our clients range from startups to Fortune 500 companies. The American Payroll Association and various US federal agencies also call on us to assist with payroll tax and fringe benefit issues—matters that affect both rank-and-file employees and senior executives. Considering recent legislative initiatives, developments within the Treasury Department, and the IRS’s increasing audit activity, we closely monitor and respond to fringe benefit, payroll tax, and contingent workforce issues that may impact our clients.
As part of our comprehensive client service, we conduct compliance checks that aim to minimize the effect of IRS audits and increase reliance on statutory and regulatory relief provisions. Our lawyers work to decrease tax exposure while limiting our clients’ costs and administrative efforts.
In our compliance checks and audit defense work, we often spot payroll tax refunds that companies were not aware they could recoup. We have successfully obtained numerous multimillion-dollar refund claims for Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax overpayments.
FRINGE BENEFITS
Our executive and nonexecutive fringe benefits practitioners advise on the exclusion, substantiation, valuation, and deduction of the following fringe benefits:
Qualified transportation fringes
Expense reimbursement/accountable plans
Meals and lodging (including per diem payments)
Employer-provided automobiles
Working condition fringes
Employee discounts
No-additional-cost fringes
Employee prizes and awards
Employer cafeterias and athletic facilities
Employee computers and cell phones
Spousal travel
We also counsel on the following employee-related benefits:
Accountable plans
Adoption assistance plans
Employee leave banks
Education assistance plans
Supplemental unemployment benefit (SUB or SUB-Pay) plans
Severance arrangements
Alternatives to SUB-Pay plans and severance
Our team further advises clients on the following executive fringe benefits and related regulations:
Executive loans
Use of corporate jets and standard industry fare level (SIFL) computations
Income minimization techniques and tax planning opportunities
Housing assistance and relocation benefits
Executive security programs
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting of executive perks
Executive physicals
