Employee Benefits and Tax

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Complex tax rules and legal requirements make benefits and compensation plans too risky to manage without focused experience. Our dedicated team helps employers navigate ERISA, IRS, DOL, and PBGC requirements with practical, cost-efficient guidance tailored to your workforce and goals.

How we can help:

Plan Design & Compliance
Regulatory Audits & Agency Defense
Executive Compensation & Tax Strategy

Employee benefits and executive compensation arrangements present you with many tax and legal issues that are much too complex for non-specialists. You want a team of attorneys who exclusively practice in this area to help you get to the bottom line.

The Fisher Phillips Employee Benefits Practice Group helps employers comply with the many layers of statutory and regulatory requirements affecting employee benefits in a responsive manner that is efficient in terms of both time and cost.

BREADTH OF SERVICES

In addition to providing day-to-day advice on various employee benefits and executive compensation tax and legal issues, we offer an entire array of benefits services for your company. We draft and review plan documents, prepare summary plan descriptions and other employee communications, draft and review annual IRS Forms 5500 and other returns, and provide advice regarding Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) fiduciary issues, prohibited transactions and other plan asset issues. We are well-versed in Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) continuation coverage issues, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy compliance, employment tax and income tax withholding concerns, and multiemployer plan withdrawal liability matters. Finally, we can represent you before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), United States Department of Labor (USDOL) and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) in proceedings such as audits, investigations, and corrections, and we represent your interests in employee benefits and executive compensation litigation.

DEPTH OF EXPERIENCE

Our client base covers the entire spectrum of employers – from small start-ups with a handful of employees, to large, publicly traded companies employing tens of thousands of workers. Because we have such a broad base of clients, we regularly assist with all aspects of benefits and executive compensation law, including 401(k) and other qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, health and welfare benefit plans, wellness plans, cafeteria plans, healthcare reform strategy and compliance, executive compensation arrangements, and employment tax compliance and controversy work.

OUR UNIQUE APPROACH

We stand out from other benefits lawyers in that we offer practical solutions to legal issues, communicating with you in straightforward plain English rather than technical “code-speak.” We understand that your benefits program does not operate in a vacuum, so rather than solely focus on the legal elements of your actions, we always consider the economic, accounting, employee-relations, and employee-communications aspects of your decisions. This is how our proactive and creative advice adds value to your organization.