60th Annual Southern Federal Tax Institute

Partners Mary B. Hevener and Jonathan Zimmerman will be speakers at the 60th Annual Southern Federal Tax Institute conference, leading the session Employee Benefits: Updates to Laws, Regulations, and IRS Operations in the New Administration.

The panel will cover a wide range of hot topics in payroll taxes, fringe benefits, and other employee benefits, covering audits, worker classification guidance, and proposed regulations and legislative changes. The panel will also cover a list of issues commonly raised in both state and federal payroll tax audits (ranging from company cafeterias and payroll tax deposit penalties to the Biden administration’s “campaign” to audit company aircraft) and discuss how such audits might be affected by the IRS’s surprising recent guidance limiting the Section 530 federal moratorium.

Further, the panel will discuss how fringe benefits and third-party payments may dramatically affect the selection of the five additional executives who, beginning in 2027, must be added to the deduction-disallowance list under Section 162(m). The panel also will cover tax considerations for employers with overfunded pension and medical plans. Finally, the panel will address 2025 pending and enacted legislation impacting employee benefits, the current administration’s “Green Book” proposals, and developments in “Taxpayer Advocate” filings intended to expedite return processing, penalty abatements, and release of levies.