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US Election 2020: Americans choose between Trump and Biden

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Americans are voting in one of the most divisive presidential polls in decades, Republican Donald Trump against Democrat Joe Biden.

Polls have opened in the east of the country after a long and bitter campaign amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly 100 million people have already cast their ballots in early voting, putting the country on course for its highest turnout in a century.

Both rivals spent the final hours of the race rallying in key swing states.

National polls give a firm lead to Mr Biden, but it is a closer race in the states that could decide the outcome.

To be elected president, a candidate must win at least 270 votes in what is called the electoral college. Each US state gets a certain number of votes partly based on its population and there are a total of 538 up for grabs.

This system explains why it is possible for a candidate to win the most votes nationally – as Hillary Clinton did in 2016 – but still lose the election.

Control of the Senate is also at stake in these elections, with the Democrats seeking to gain control of both houses of Congress and the White House for the first time since early in Barack Obama’s first term.

Personal Income Tax: COVID-19 Telecommuting Addressed – NYC

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Last week, New York announced that for a nonresident whose primary office is in the state, days telecommuting during the pandemic are considered days worked in New York, unless the employer has established a bona fide employer office at the employee’s telecommuting location. Generally, unless the employer specifically acted to establish a bona fide employer office at the telecommuting location, the nonresident employee will continue to owe New York income tax on income earned while telecommuting.

For more information, feel free to contact us directly.

Robert Hoberman

Managing Partner, Hoberman & Lesser CPAs, LLP

Curtis Mallet Swipes Africa Specialist From Simmons Dubai

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U.S. law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle has hired an Africa specialist from Simmons & Simmons in Dubai, signalling the growing importance of the city as a hub for Africa work.

New partner Paul Bugingo joins the firm having spent over 20 years advising governments, state-owned corporations and investors on large-scale energy and infrastructure projects across Africa, including in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somaliland, Djibouti, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho, the firm said in a statement.

“In the span of his career, he is also credited with spearheading the Africa practice at Dentons,” the firm said. “Qualified to practice as a solicitor in England & Wales, Mr Bugingo brings with him a wealth of experience in the energy and infrastructure sector and a particular focus on Africa.”

Bugingo joined Simmons & Simmons as partner in Dubai in 2015, after a 17-year stint at Dentons as partner in London and Dubai.

“We are very pleased to have Paul join us. His broad experience in advising on Africa-related projects and his overall projects background will be a tremendous asset. He adds a new dimension to our Dubai-based offerings,” said Jeremy Miocevic, managing partner of Curtis Dubai.

Curtis Mallet has been expanding its international presence this year, in July making a rare partner hire to its London office from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Chinese Investment in US Plummets Under Increased Scrutiny

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New U.S. government data shows a massive drop in acquisitions of U.S. businesses by Chinese investors, particularly in critical technologies, evidence of the chilling effect of the Trump administration’s heightened scrutiny of Chinese investments.

The data, released by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, provides evidence of the impact of strained U.S.-China relations on U.S. inbound Chinese investment. It also sheds light on the practical impact of recent reforms bolstering CFIUS’s powers.

In 2019, China was not the biggest source of transaction notices filed to CFIUS, a position it had held since 2011. Instead, that distinction fell to Japan, which filed 46 notices to CFIUS. This indicates that inbound Chinese investment to the U.S. for the year was lower than previous years, as CFIUS had fewer Chinese transactions to review, according to Darshak Dholakia, a partner at Dechert in Washington, D.C.

According to its annual report to Congress for 2019, published on July 31, CFIUS reviewed 25 Chinese transactions last year, a more than 50% drop from 55 the previous year and 60 in 2017. There was also a corresponding drop in Chinese investment in critical technologies, from eight acquisitions in 2018 to just three last year.

“Most of these publicly notified transactions that have received CFIUS scrutiny and CFIUS has either killed the deal through onerous mitigation measures or President Trump has recommended blocking the deal—those overwhelmingly have involved critical technologies,” Dholakia said.

In March, President Donald Trump blocked the acquisition of U.S. hotel management software company StayNTouch Inc. by Chinese company Beijing Shiji Information Technology Co. through a presidential order. Although there were no such orders issued in 2019, according to the CFIUS report, five of the six presidential orders issued over CFIUS’s 40-year history were issued in the last eight years. Moreover, five of the six orders related to Chinese investments.

According to a Rhodium Group report published in May, Chinese investment in the U.S. in 2019 fell to $5 billion, its lowest level in more than a decade. In addition to growing CFIUS scrutiny, the report also cited China’s restrictions on outbound investment and worsening U.S.-China relations as significant headwinds for Chinese investors.

CFIUS reviews foreign investment for national security risks. According to Cooley, examples of transactions that CFIUS typically scrutinizes include those involving U.S. businesses that have contracts with the U.S. government, as well as transactions that would result in foreign control over critical infrastructure.

Comprising nine government agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury, CFIUS has the power to recommend the president block or unwind transactions as well as modify transactions by imposing mitigation measures.

In recent years, CFIUS has seen its review powers bolstered, most notably in 2018 with the passage of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act. Some of the main changes include a greater focus on foreign investment in U.S. critical technologies, as well as the introduction of mandatory filing requirements for certain transactions, including those involving critical technologies.

“This discussion about how to properly frame CFIUS’s jurisdiction has been caught up in a larger discussion about cybersecurity, IP theft, resilience of American critical infrastructure, and sufficiency of its national industrial base,” said Jeremy Zucker, co-chair of Dechert’s international trade and government regulation practice based in Washington. D.C.

Chinese investors should pay close attention to CFIUS’s tightened filing requirements as a result of FIRRMA, Zucker said. He pointed out that CFIUS has seen its budget significantly expanded, which has led to the establishment of a new office dedicated to reviewing transactions that are not voluntarily submitted to CFIUS for review.

“There is more monitoring of the investment universe than ever, so a decision not to file is a riskier decision than it used to be. If the goal is to be able to close the deal with confidence that the U.S. government won’t interfere, then it’s certainly wiser to seek that clearance on a preclose basis than to close and then hide and hope that the government won’t come looking for you later,” Zucker said.

In recent years, CFIUS has unwound Chinese acquisitions of U.S. businesses several years following their completion. In March, Chinese company Kunlun was forced to divest from its acquisition of gay dating app Grindr in 2016 following a CFIUS review. Earlier this month, Trump issued an executive order banning TikTok from the U.S. market following a CFIUS review of the Chinese video-sharing platform’s acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly in 2017.

Zucker believes Chinese investment in the U.S. is still possible, as long as Chinese investors are proactive in addressing known concerns of the U.S. government. These include whether the Chinese investor is an operating entity in the same industry as the investment target; the commercial merits of the investment; and the ultimate ownership of the investor itself.

“The most important thing for Chinese investors to do [moving forward] is to try put themselves in the shoes of U.S. government officials reviewing their investments,” Zucker said. “We’re representing Chinese investors in front of CFIUS right now, and we certainly are not under the impression that those investments are doomed.”

Trump Administration is withdrawing from Surveillance Treaty

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US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced on Thursday that the United States will be submitting notice of its withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies on Friday, May 22, 2020.

Secretary Pompeo noted reasons for the US withdraw were that Russia “has undermined [the] central confidence-building function of the Treaty – and has, in fact, fueled distrust and threats to our national security – making continued U.S. participation untenable.”

The Treaty on Open Skies was signed by 35 countries which took effect in 2002 and permits each state-party to conduct unarmed reconnaissance flights with certain restrictions over the others’ entire territories to collect data on military forces and activities. In accordance with Article XV, the US withdraw will be effective no sooner than 6-months after the notice is given.

In a letter addressed to Secretary Pompeo, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, President Trump and two advisors, Representatives Eliot Engel and Adam Smith argue that the US withdraw comes in violation of Section 1234 of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which requires the president to notify Congress at least 120 days before the notice of intent to withdraw from the treaty is presented under Article XV.

Representatives Engel and Smith cautioned that despite past Russian violations of the Treaty over Kaliningrad and occupied territories in Georgia, “the Treaty has brought unprecedented openness and transparency between participating countries and is highly valued by our allies and partners.”

US Legal Industry Shed 64,000 Jobs in April

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To the surprise of no one, the April jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed massive employment losses, totaling over 20 million positions for the month, and legal jobs were no exception.

The legal sector showed a net loss of 64,000 jobs—a decline dozens of times larger than the fluctuations normally seen by the industry. The overall unemployment rate across industries stands at 14.7%, according to BLS data, higher than any time since the Great Depression.

The report on Friday showed 1,097,006 people working in the legal industry, including attorneys, paralegals, legal secretaries and others. The figure is down by 50,000 jobs from this point last year.

Updated numbers for the prior month saw the overall job market lose over 700,000 jobs in March, with the legal industry showing a loss of 1,700 jobs.

But that was before COVID-19 had a full month of stay-at-home restrictions to bolster its devastating economic effects.

Pandemic-related cost-cutting measures at major legal employers—big law firms most prominently—have been accelerating since they began in March, with April and early May bringing increasing reports of furloughs and layoffs.

Some large firms, such as Mayer Brown and Hogan Lovells, have managed to get by thus far with pay cuts and dividend deferrals. But others, such as Nixon Peabody, Goodwin Procter and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, have all made substantial staff cuts to go along with pay reductions for attorneys and staff.

The last time the legal industry went through an acute economic crisis, during the Great Recession, layoffs were the norm. For now, many large firms are still opting, when they can, to enact pay cuts, hour reductions and furloughs instead.

Unlike during the Great Recession, though, the direct impacts of the pandemic are spread across every industry, the flurry of austerity measures has happened quickly, and there isn’t a clear path forward to recovery.

Mixed messages at the federal level, differing local situations in states and municipalities and the possibility of months or more of uncertainty over economic conditions put businesses, including law firms, in the unenviable position of trying to plan for something they can’t see.

Many of the geographic areas in the U.S. that were hit hardest initially by COVID-19, such as New York, Detroit and Seattle, have seen success in slowing new cases, but they are rising elsewhere. That could drive major regional variations in when demand will ramp back up and whether a return to the office is possible. With regard to the latter, it doesn’t seem firms are in that much of a hurry.

Other findings in Friday’s jobs report include:

  • Unemployment overall rose by 10.3% in April, the largest monthly increase since records started being kept in January of 1948.
  • Workers who identify as white had an unemployment rate of 14.2%; those who identify as Asian were at 14.5%; those who identify as black were at 16.7%; and those who identify as Hispanic were at 18.9%. With the exception of those who identify as black, the numbers are all record highs.
  • Those who were on a temporary layoff increased by a factor of 10 to more than 18 million.
  • Labor force participation rate fell 2.5% to 60.2%, the lowest recorded level since 1973, when the rate was at 60%.
  • Leisure and hospitality lost 7.7 million jobs, or 47% of the workforce.

Trump: Executive Order to Extend the deadline for payments

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Yesterday, 4/19, President Trump issued an Executive Order on National Emergency Authority to Temporarily Extend Deadlines for Certain Estimated Payments which authorizes the Secretary of Treasury to “temporarily extend deadlines, for importers suffering significant financial hardship due to COVID-19, for the estimated payments.”

By postponing the deadline to deposit certain duties, taxes, and fees for 90 days, we are providing much-needed relief to affected businesses,” Mr. Mnuchin said. “This will protect American jobs and help these businesses get through this time.”

You can review the details of the scope of the relief here: CSMS #42423171 – COVID-19 – 90 Day Postponement of Payment for the Deposit of Certain Estimated Duties, Taxes, and Fees.  “Significant financial hardship” is defined as:

“If the operation of such importer is fully or partially suspended during March 2020 or April 2020 due to orders from a competent governmental authority limiting commerce, travel, or group meetings due to COVID-19, and as a result of such suspension, the gross receipts of such importer for March 13-31, 2020 or April 2020 are less than 60 percent of the gross receipts for the comparable period in 2019.”

It will be necessary to provide CBP with documentation supporting a request for duty deferral demonstrating that one meets the significant financial hardship criteria mentioned above. The 90-day deferral of duties extends to a limited number of circumstances: formal entries of merchandise entered, or withdrawn from a warehouse, for consumption (including entries for consumption from a Foreign Trade Zone) in March 2020 or April 2020.

The deferral does not apply to the majority of imported goods subject to:

  • Antidumping duties,
  • Countervailing duties,
  • Duties assessed pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962,
  • Duties assessed pursuant to Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, and
  • Duties assessed pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

For specific filing instructions, please see CSMS #42421561 – COVID-19 – Payment Instructions for 90-Day Postponement of Payment for the Deposit of Certain Estimated Duties, Taxes, and Fees.

Note: If a company has a product subject to section 301 duties, but received an exclusion from 301 duties, these entries are not eligible for the 90-day deferral.

Federal Tax Relief to Alleviate COVID-19 Hardships

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The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has already had widespread effects on the U.S. economy. Demand for many goods and services has stalled. Unemployment claims have skyrocketed. And many schools and businesses are operating online — if at all. Life has changed dramatically across the country.

The federal government has been working on various relief measures to help individuals and small businesses cope with the situation, including tax relief provisions. Here are the tax changes that have been finalized so far.

Even more relief measures are underway. As of this writing, Congress is working on a huge new COVID-19 relief bill that will surely include a massive economic stimulus package and probably lots of tax changes. Contact your tax pro for the latest developments.

Guidance on Federal Income Tax Deadline Deferrals

On March 20, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced on Twitter that the April 15 federal income tax filing deadlines will be extended until July 15. His tweet says, “All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties.” It’s unclear at this point whether the extension will apply to the tax return filing deadlines for federal payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare taxes) owed by employers or for federal estate and gift taxes.

In addition, on March 21, the IRS issued Notice 2020-18, which clarifies that individual taxpayers and corporations can defer until July 15 federal income tax payments that would otherwise be due on April 15. (Normally, when you file an extension, you must still make a good-faith estimate of your tax liability and, by the normal filing deadline, pay the full amount estimated to be due. This relief measure is an exception to the general rule.)

Specifics under Notice 2020-18 are as follows:

For individuals. Individual taxpayers can defer payment of federal income tax (including any self-employment tax) owed for the 2019 tax year from the normal April 15 deadline until July 15. They can also defer their initial quarterly estimated federal income tax payments for the 2020 tax year (including any self-employment tax) from the normal April 15 deadline until July 15.

Individuals who have non-salary income — such as self-employed people, investors and rental property owners — must normally make quarterly estimated tax payments to avoid an IRS interest charge penalty.

Individuals can defer their tax payments until July 15, with no interest or penalties, “regardless of the amount owed.” (Earlier IRS guidance imposed a $1 million limit, but that limit was eliminated by Notice 2020-18.)

For corporations. Corporations that use the calendar year for tax purposes can defer until July 15 any amount of federal income tax payments that would otherwise be due on April 15 with no interest or penalties. This relief covers the amount owed for the 2019 tax year and the amount due for the first quarterly estimated tax payment for the 2020 tax year. Both of those amounts would otherwise be due on April 15. (Earlier IRS guidance imposed a $10 million limit, but that limit was eliminated by Notice 2020-18.)

For trusts and estates. Trusts and estates pay federal income taxes, too. Federal income tax payments for the 2019 tax year of trusts and estates that use the calendar year for tax purposes are due on April 15. The initial quarterly estimated federal income tax payments for the 2020 tax year of trusts and estates that use the calendar year for tax purposes are also due on April 15.

Notice 2020-18 clarifies that trusts and estates can defer any amount of the aforementioned tax payments from April 15 to July 15 with no interest or penalties.

Important: Notice 2020-18 offers no relief for paying federal payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare taxes) owed by employers — or federal estate and gift taxes. But additional relief measures may be under construction in Congress.

Tax Provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act

On March 18, President Trump signed into law a COVID-19 relief bill. It’s called the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The new law mandates paid leave benefits for small business employees affected by the COVID-19 emergency and establish related tax credits and Social Security and Medicare (FICA) tax relief for their employers.

Tax credits for emergency leave payments to employees. The new law grants tax credits to small employers to cover payments to eligible employees while they take time off under the mandatory emergency COVID-19 paid sick leave and paid family leave provisions. These provisions apply to employers with less than 500 employees.

Emergency paid sick leave under the new law is limited to $511 per day for up to 10 days (up to $5,110 in total) for an employee who’s in COVID-19 quarantine or seeking a COVID-19 diagnosis. An employee can also receive emergency COVID-19 paid sick leave of up to $200 per day for up to 10 days (up to $2,000 in total) to care for a child whose school or childcare location has been closed or whose childcare is unavailable due to COVID-19.

In addition, the law gives an employee the right to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected family leave if the employee or a family member is in COVID-19 quarantine or if the school or childcare location of the employee’s child is closed due to the outbreak. The employer must pay at least two-thirds of the employee’s usual pay, up to a maximum of $200 per day, subject to an overall maximum of $10,000 in total family leave payments.

To help employers cover these now-mandatory emergency leave payments, the law allows a refundable tax credit equal to 100% of qualified sick leave wages and family and medical leave wages paid by the employer.

The credit applies only to eligible leave payments made during the period beginning on a date specified by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and ending on December 31, 2020. The beginning date will be within 15 days of March 18, 2020.

The new law increases the credit to cover a portion of an employer’s qualified health plan expenses that are allocable to emergency sick leave wages and emergency family leave wages.

The credit is first used to offset the Social Security tax component of the employer’s FICA tax bill. Any excess credit is refundable, meaning the government will issue a check to the employer for the excess.

Important: The credit isn’t available to employers that are already receiving the pre-existing credit for paid family and medical leave under Internal Revenue Code Section 45S.

Employer FICA tax relief. Qualified sick leave and family leave payments mandated by the new law are exempt from the 6.2% Social Security tax component of the employer FICA tax on wages. Employers must pay the 1.45% Medicare tax component of the FICA tax on qualified sick leave and family leave payments, but they can claim a credit for that outlay.

Credits for self-employed people. For a self-employed individual who’s affected by the COVID-19 emergency, the new law allows a comparable refundable credit against the individual’s federal income tax bill. If the credit exceeds the individual’s federal income tax bill (including the self-employment tax), the excess will be refunded via a check from the government. The credit equals:

  • 100% of the self-employed person’s sick-leave equivalent amount, or
  • 67% of the person’s sick-leave equivalent amount for taking care of a sick family member or taking care of the individual’s child following the closing of the child’s school or childcare location.

The sick-leave equivalent amount equals the lesser of:

  • The individual’s average daily self-employment (SE) income, or
  • $511 per day for up to 10 days (up to $5,110 in total) to care for the individual or $200 per day for up to 10 days (up to $2,000 in total) to care for a sick family member or a child following the closing of the child’s school or childcare location.

In addition, a self-employed individual could receive a family leave credit for up to 50 days. The credit amount would equal the number of leave days multiplied by the lesser of:

  • $200, or
  • The individual’s average daily SE income.

The maximum total family leave credit would be $10,000 (50 days x $200 per day).

Credits for self-employed individuals are only allowed for days during the period beginning on a date specified by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and ending on December 31, 2020. The beginning date will be within 15 days of March 18, 2020.

Important: To properly claim the credit, self-employed individuals must maintain whatever documentation the IRS requires in future guidance. Contact your tax professional for details.

Moving Target

This article only covers some of the COVID-19-related tax changes that have already been finalized. Other types of non-tax federal relief have also been made available and many states have announced their own COVID-19 relief. More federal measures and additional guidance are expected soon. Contact your tax professional to discuss financial relief measures that apply in your specific situation.

 

William Phillips, Employment Discrimination Award Winner

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https://www.newyorkcitydiscriminationlawyer.com/leaders-in-law-names-william-phillips-employment-discrimination.html

William Phillips, was selected as Employment Discrimination Lawyer of the Year by Leaders in Law Global Awards 2020. He is the managing partner of Phillips & Associates. The firm has represented clients in thousands of employment cases, including those involving sexual harassment, race discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and disability discrimination. Our New York City employment lawyers have worked hard to obtain the best possible results for employees in Manhattan and the other boroughs of NYC. We have obtained tremendous success in securing millions of dollars in settlements and damages awards.

Mr. Phillips previously has been recognized as one of the 10 Best Labor and Employment Attorneys in New York by the American Institute of Legal Counsel and as a Top 100 Labor & Employment Lawyer in New York by the American Society of Legal Advocates. He has been selected as a member of Lawyers of Distinction in Employment and Labor Law. He belongs to the prestigious Million Dollar Advocates Forum, as do three other employment attorneys at Phillips & Associates.

Phillips & Associates has 18 workplace discrimination attorneys at our Manhattan office. Thus, we possess the resources to level the playing field for an employee who has been wronged. We are one of the largest workplace discrimination and sexual harassment law firms in the country, representing workers in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

New York City employees face a huge disadvantage in the workplace, and the disparity in power between employees and employers only intensifies when an employee experiences discrimination or sexual harassment. Our firm takes a personalized and compassionate approach to representing each of our clients.

Employees face substantial hurdles during litigation, so it is important to be represented by a seasoned employment lawyer like the attorneys at Phillips & Associates. More than 75% of employees lose before getting to trial, according to a federal judicial study of the summary judgment stage. Often, when a company in Manhattan or elsewhere is sued for discrimination, its attorneys file a motion for summary judgment or another dispositive motion. When an employer is successful on its summary judgment motion, the case is over before it even gets to a jury. Getting skilled legal counsel on your side at the very beginning of your case can help make sure that your claim survives these initial challenges.

An employee should make sure to retain a law firm with the knowledge and experience to decide whether it makes sense to settle a case or to take it to trial. We apply a risk/reward analysis to each case that we handle, and we continue to apply this analysis throughout the litigation. Sometimes the situation changes as a lawsuit unfolds, based on information or testimony that emerges. Our firm is conscientious about advising our clients when it is wise to settle and when it is appropriate to take the risk of going to trial.

Our goal is to secure a favorable resolution that provides our clients with closure and a definitive outcome. This often means a settlement, but sometimes an employer does not offer fair settlement terms. When this happens, our experience and skill allow us to take your case all the way through trial, vigorously defending your rights before a judge or jury.

Retain an Experienced Employment Attorney in NYC

To discuss your case with an experienced employment discrimination attorney, contact the law firm of Phillips & Associates by calling (212) 248-7431 or completing our online form. We offer a free consultation because we understand that our clients often are facing financial difficulties. Also, we represent clients on a contingency fee basis. This means that we do not collect attorneys’ fees unless we successfully secure a settlement or verdict on your behalf. We represent employees in Manhattan and throughout New York City, as well as in Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties. Our firm also handles employment litigation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Iraq Parliament votes to end presence of foreign forces

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In a special session on Sunday the Iraqi Parliament approved a resolution that calls for the Iraqi government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country.

The vote comes in response to a US drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassim Suleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Despite the potential difficulties associated with the removal of US troops, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi ultimately recommended removal to the Council of Representatives. The resolution was passed unanimously by the 172 members in attendance.

US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement Sunday, “while we await further clarification on the legal nature and impact of today’s resolution, we strongly urge Iraqi leaders to reconsider the importance of the ongoing economic and security relationship between the two countries and the continued presence of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.”

While explaining the decision to target Suleimani, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a Sunday interview that the US is preparing for several risks not only “from the proxy militias in Iraq but in the region more broadly along every vector, including cyber.”