Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP

Client Alerts

  • 08/08/08Lenders Foreclosing on Construction Sites A new permit issued by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has a number of changes that impact banks and other lenders in regards to the foreclosing/acquiring of construction and development sites at which land-disturbing activities have been occuring.
  • 07/28/08July 2008 Client Alert
  • 04/11/08GRTA Approves New DRI Procedures and Principles and Technical Guidelines The Board of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) approved new Developments of Regional Impact (DRI) procedures and principles and technical guidelines. Some key revisions are listed in the alert.
  • 02/24/08February 2008 E-Alert
  • 02/22/08IRS Issues Formal Guidance on Code Section 162(m) The IRS has confirmed its change in position on 162(m).
  • 02/19/08Update on Performance-Based Compensation Changes Impacting Public Companies Update to the recent February Employee Benefits E-Alert.
  • 01/08/08USCIS Issues New I-9 Form The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the release of a revised Form I-9.
  • 11/28/072007 Year End Deadlines for Qualified Retirement Plans Statutes and regulations issued over the past few years have converged to create a number of potential year end deadlines for qualified retirement employee benefit plans and their sponsors. The alert lists some of these year-end deadlines and issues that plan sponsors should keep in mind.
  • 11/27/07Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangements Under new regulations for Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangements, there is a new safe harbor for defined contribution plans that adopt an automatic enrollment policy. The automatic enrollment safe harbor may be less costly for employers.
  • 11/02/07IRS Extends 409A Deadline to December 31, 2008 On October 22, 2007, the Treasury Department and IRS issued Notice 2007-86, superseding the previous, limited transition relief provided in Notice 2007-78 that we reported in a client alert last month.
  • 10/04/07409A Deadline Extended to 2008, But Action Still Required in 2007! The Treasury Department and IRS recently issued Notice 2007-78, extending the deadline to December 31, 2008 to bring most deferred compensation arrangements into compliance with 409A. While the deadline to amend the written provisions of a plan for 409A has been extended, keep in mind that many important decisions regarding the payment structures of these arrangements still must be made and documented by the end of 2007.
  • 09/28/07Massachusetts Eliminates Requirement to File Cafeteria Plans Employers with employees in Massachusetts who were facing an October 1 deadline to file Section 125 cafeteria plans with Massachusetts state officials have been given a permanent reprieve.
  • 09/21/07EEO-1 Update Update to the annual EEO-1 Report. This year the EEOC modified some of its racial/ethnic categories. Job categories have also been changed to delineate greater distinctions between “Officials and Managers.” The deadline for filing the 2007 EEO-1 Report is September 30, 2007
  • 07/09/07Massachusetts State Health Insurance Law Update If you have 11 or more employees in Massachusetts, you are now required to comply with new state health insurance laws that went into effect July 1, 2007.
  • 06/28/07Increase in Federal Minimum-Wage For the first time in ten years, Congress has passed, and the President has signed, legislation increasing the federal minimum-wage. The federal minimum-wage, which is currently $5.15 per hour, will rise over the next two years to $7.25 per hour. This increase will be made in three steps.
  • 02/26/07Employee Benefits Update - 2007 Disclosure Requirements As you complete your W-2 obligations for 2006 and start thinking about the 2007 year, we are sending this alert to remind you that you may need to change your internal controls and procedures to comply with new reporting requirements for employee stock purchase, incentive stock option, and nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements.
  • 02/01/07IRS Issues First Pension Protection Act Guidance of 2007 For Employee Benefit Plans The IRS recently released Notice 2007-7 (“Notice”) providing new guidance on changes in employee benefits law created by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (the “PPA”). This guidance addresses changes to minimum vesting requirements, hardship distributions, rollovers to non-spouse beneficiaries, notice requirements for distributions, and interest rate assumptions for lump sum distributions from defined benefit plans.
  • Inter Partes Reexamination Client Alert The procedure known as inter partes reexamination is a proceeding which takes place in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and allows any person to challenge the validity of United States patents issuing from original applications filed in the United States on or after November 29, 1999 on the basis of published prior art applicable to the patentability of the claims.

Archived Client Alerts

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