Fringe Benefit and Payroll Tax Audit Issues, From Soup to Nuts: Predictions for a New Wave of IRS Enforcement
Join us for an informal and interactive roundtable discussion for in-house professionals and outside advisors who handle executive compensation, fringe benefits, and payroll taxes for US employees, directors and contractors, and expatriates and nonresident aliens who travel to the United States.
The speakers handle dozens of payroll tax and penalty audits every year and will discuss the likely future of these audits under the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS’s) expanded budget for hiring new examiners and appeals officers.
- 10:00–11:00 am: Session 1
- This session will focus on answers to commonly asked questions about “back to work” benefits, including free meals, employee awards and points programs, wellness programs, compensation assignments to charities, potential tax problems with benefit “choices” outside cafeteria plans, executive tax withholding complications, possible benefits for outside directors, and executive compensation clawbacks, both under noncompetes and Dodd-Frank clawbacks—all questions raised by examiners at the start of any payroll audit.
- 11:00–12:00 pm: Lunch
- Our team will provide perspectives on the likely focus of payroll tax auditors hired with the IRS’s expanded budget fund who are being trained to audit the Employee Retention Credit, withholding deposit timing, and taxation of stock option and restricted stock unit compensation—for employees in the United States and abroad—with a likely increased prevalence of penalties and interest charges and harsh collection tactics, from liens to responsible person penalties.
- 12:00–1:00 pm: Session 2
- This session will raise other commonly asked questions, with a focus on the FTC’s proposals on noncompetes and their effect on executive compensation programs, the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s scheduled acceleration of broker deposits in March 2024 and its effect on withholding deposit timing, the “Green Book” proposals affecting both “on-demand pay” and proposed withholding of Code section 409A taxes, and possible congressional hearings on additional “taxpayer protection” limitations on IRS audit authority.
Registration
To register, please email Sabrina Tredwell with your name, employer, and job title.