2008 Telephone Seminars - Training Resources

Form 990 and Unrelated Business Income ... teleconference will involve a detailed discussion of the 2008 Form 990 and any changes for 2009, including tips and traps. If you are involved with 990s, you know the effort it takes to complete the form accurately. With renewed emphasis on the filing due to congressional attention and IRS audit activity, this teleconference will go through the respective parts of the form in detail, and  more...

EPA's Rules on Compensatory Mitigation for Impact on Wetlands, Streams and Other Waters ...2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers adopted new rules that dramatically changed its approach to mitigation under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which regulates fill in wetlands and other waters of the United States. The new rules adopt a mitigation hierarchy that moves away from the prior preference for on-site, in-kind mitigation in favor of mitigation banks and watershed-based  more...

Mortgage Fraud: An Epidemic ...2008 as the worst year ever for mortgage fraud. 2009 has seen the mortgage fraud epidemic spread even wider and deeper. This teleconference will focus on the most prevalent forms of mortgage fraud. Best practices for detection and prevention are outlined, with industry-specific recommendations for bankers, lawyers and mortgage professionals. We will conclude with a discussion of choosing and  more...

Affirmative Action in Employment - What Does It Really Mean? ... a new leader and an increased budget. During fiscal year 2008, the OFCCP recovered a record $67,510,982 in back pay for salary and benefits on behalf of 24,508 individuals who, in OFCCP's view, were subjected to unlawful employment discrimination. The FY 2008 financial recovery represents a more than 20 percent increase over the amount recovered in FY 2007 ($51,680,950). The compliance reviews  more...

Current Issues in Real Estate Appraisals ...2008 and was brought to a crescendo when AIG was taken over and Lehman Brothers failed in September 2008. The reasons behind the failures were many but beneath it all was the collateral position of the real estate and proper risk assessment of the asset. The single most important question is always - What is the value? All federally regulated institutions are required by law to have due  more...

Recognizing and Addressing COBRA ...oyees involuntarily losing their job between September 1, 2008, and December 31, 2009, will have special COBRA privileges including eligibility of a tax subsidy of their COBRA premiums. Actually the employer fronts the money for the majority of the COBRA premium and receives a tax credit off of their payroll taxes. Important questions such as: Who is eligible for the tax subsidy? How does that  more...

Mental Illness and the ADA BenefitsManaging employees with claimed mental conditions creates unique challenges for employers attempting to comply with the ADA. What mental impairments does the ADA protect? How does the employer know of these often invisible disabilities and of the employee's need to accommodate the condition? How does an employer accommodate conditions that cause employees to violate work rules or request  more...

Social Networking in the Workplace: Policies, Monitoring and Discipline Issues ...pularity over the last few years. According to an October 2008 survey, 51 percent of employees accessed social networks at least once per day at work; many of them did so for an hour or more per week. Despite these numbers and the risks inherent in employees using social networking tools, such as harassment, dissemination of trade secret information and lost productivity, employers have been  more...

ADA Update: Overview of Americans with Disabilities Act and Practical Implications for Employers ...2008 takes effect January 1, 2009. The new amendments substantially alter and expand the definition of disabled under the ADA and who might be protected. This teleconference will review the ADA amendments and related issues, provide you with practical advice on how to comply with the ADA, and address common ADA and employment issues that may be impacted by the new law. Human resource managers,  more...

Preparing for the International Financial Reporting Standard ...2008, the SEC released its proposed road map for the adoption of IFRS in the United States. At about the same time, leaders from the G20 countries at a financial summit in the United States issued a statement which, among other things, confirmed the leaders' support for developing a single set of high-quality global accounting standards. n nBoth of these events represent progress toward the  more...

Doing Business in Texas? An Overview of the Texas Margin Tax ...nto the details of the tax. Beginning with reports due in 2008 all this has changed with the revised Texas Franchise Tax, known as the Texas Margin Tax by everyone but the Texas Comptroller's Office. The Texas Margin Tax raises a variety of issues for tax executives ranging from the tax provision to the overall legal entity structure of the company. For companies operating in Texas, either  more...

Impact of the New ADA Amendments on Schools ... Congress passed a body of amendments to ADA in September 2008 which effectively overturned the Court's interpretations and replaced them with a broader and more specific enumeration of what qualifies as a disability under ADA and Section 504. These changes will require many employers and school officers serving special needs students to change hiring, employment and student eligibility  more...

FASB Statement 157 - Fair Value Update on Corporate Asset Valuation ..." seems like an apt descriptor for the economic events of 2008. While implementing changes mandated by FASB 157 could be challenging for companies - and has been in some cases - the rule aims to make it easier to communicate value to shareholders. This teleconference will provide an overview of SFAS 157 guidelines, including the new definition of fair value, defensive value and the three-tier  more...

Floodproofing Fundamentals: Design Methods to Reduce Flood Damages .... Yet in spite of these risks associated with flooding, a 2008 national study commissioned by Office Depot indicates 40 percent of small businesses and nearly 50 percent of homeowners have no preparedness plans for floods or other major disasters. n nSolution: This teleconference is intended to help you reduce or eliminate the risk of flood damages to residential, commercial and public  more...

Paycheck Calculation Basics nThis is an excellent teleconference for those new at withholding payroll taxes or for those who need a refresher course. You will learn tips on how and why to determine if the worker is exempt or nonexempt. We will cover the calculation of and the maximum deductions for Social Security and Medicare taxes in 2009. n nThere are multiple methods of calculating federal withholding, which one should  more...

Estate Planning Opportunities in an Uncertain Environment ... on the sidelines to decide what to do after experiencing 2008? The uncertain times and uncertain market have actually created the perfect time to use some of the advanced planning tools in the estate planner's arsenal. Depressed values for good assets open up the opportunity to leverage our clients' assets to achieve bigger results down the road than we thought possible. In this  more...

Share-Based Compensation - Impact of Recent Events on the Use of Equity Compensation nExecutive compensation continues to be a hot topic across many industries. Recent changes in share-based compensation rules, principally the changes to Financial Accounting Standards 123(R) [FAS 123(R)], and market uncertainty and declines have led to significant changes in how companies and executives view the role and the value of equity as part of an overall compensation package. Join our  more...

Employee Retaliation: Supreme Court Update ...ermined in CBOCS West, Inc. v. Humphries, 128 S.Ct. 1951 (2008) that employees can bring retaliation claims under Section 1981, a post-Civil War era race discrimination act, even though the law does not expressly refer to retaliation. Moreover, the CBOCS West decision recognizes a retaliation claim brought by an individual of any race, who suffers an adverse action as a result of attempting to  more...

Same-Gender Marriage Rulings: Impacts on Employee Benefit Plans Across the Nation ...2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot deny same-gender couples the right to marry. Same-gender couples - many of them, in fact - flocked to California and started getting legally married on June 17, 2008. But then in November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage going forward. Massachusetts and Canada also allow same-gender  more...