TAG

Benefits compliance

Payroll, benefits, and plan obligations.

EMP-06 · 01

ERISA Plan Compliance: Documents, Reporting, and Fiduciary Duties

8 MIN · EMP

Most ERISA failures are administrative rather than financial: a plan running on an insurer's booklet, a summary nobody distributed, or a filing that stopped. This brief maps the obligations and who carries them.

ERISA requires a covered plan to be established and maintained by a written instrument, with a named fiduciary identified as responsible for plan operation.
Participants must receive a summary plan description, and most covered plans file an annual Form 5500 return with related schedules.
Fiduciaries owe duties of prudence and loyalty, must follow plan documents, and must act for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits.

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EMP-07 · 02

Worker Misclassification Audits and Voluntary Settlement Options

8 MIN · EMP

One worker can be an independent contractor for one agency and an employee for another, because each applies a different test. This brief maps the tests, the audit triggers, and the settlement routes that exist.

The IRS applies a common-law control test, the FLSA applies an economic reality analysis, and many states apply a stricter ABC test.
Audits usually begin from a single event: an unemployment claim, an injury, a worker's status-determination request, or an agency information-sharing referral.
The IRS Voluntary Classification Settlement Program and Section 530 relief are real routes, each with strict eligibility conditions that must be met first.

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