Human Resources Blog

As you’ve likely heard by now, new CDC guidance states that fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.

More businesses are planning to reopen their offices and worksites, but not everyone is returning to work there. As part of a new normal, many organizations plan to allow sizable numbers of employees to continue working remotely rather than risk seeing them hired away by a more accommodating employer.

Even the IRS is struggling to hire, which means a massive backlog of tax returns and refunds. This staffing shortage in addition to broken copiers and printers out of ink combined with the last year’s demand of checks and other pandemic-related documents being processed, has resulted in many still waiting on important assets from the government.

In other IRS news, they have announced the new limits for 2022 HSAs and high deductible health plans. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has revived LGBTQ healthcare protections, along with the controversial debate over whether religiously affiliated hospitals should be required to allow doctors to provide treatment and perform surgeries related to gender transition, among other matters.

Lastly, our national association, NAPEO has sent a letter to the IRS and Treasury, along with several state senators and representatives, to ask that any previous credits be accepted on current or future returns, bypassing manual processes and allowing small businesses to get access to the tax credits immediately with each payroll they run in real-time. The whole purpose of the ERTC is to provide aid to small businesses and requesting a refund that takes 6-10 months to receive further exposes these businesses to risk of closure.