Posts tagged Internal Revenue Service
GOP lawmakers demand info on Biden-era spending used to declare student-athletes as employees
March 3, 2025 // While the change in how college athletes are treated has been welcomed by many, others have been concerned about the move's potential implications. Earlier this month, the Trump administration rescinded the Biden administration NLRB's September 2021 memo insisting college athletes be recognized as employees under federal labor laws. The Trump administration this month also revoked guidance issued by President Joe Biden on his way out of the White House that required schools to distribute direct NIL payments equally to female and male athletes. Aaron Withe, an expert in government unionization and a former college athlete, said he fears continued momentum toward viewing college athletes as strictly employees will destroy college sports. "Are unions going to step in between a coach and their athletes for yelling at the players, or because practice went long or because they're making them run an exceptional amount of lines?" Withe wondered. "If you're represented by a union, they're now your bargaining agent. You have no ability to go represent yourself in anything with the university if it is deemed they are your employer. You've got no ability to go negotiate with them anymore."
Walberg, Allen to NLRB: How Much Taxpayer Money Did Biden-Harris Spend Trying to Unionize Student Athletes
March 2, 2025 // “In September 2021, General Counsel Abruzzo issued a memorandum to NLRB field offices taking a ‘prosecutorial position’ that certain student-athletes were employees under the NLRA. The memo further stated she would pursue an independent violation of NLRA Section 8(a)(1) in ‘appropriate’ cases where an employer misclassified players as student-athletes rather than as employees.” The letter continues: “General Counsel Abruzzo’s attempts to impose the Biden-Harris administration’s misguided priorities on the student-athlete population would have caused significant consequences. Student-athletes would have lost the ability to negotiate their own deals with universities, and classifying these student-athletes as employees could have hindered their ability to transfer between schools.
There’s a huge pay raise on the way for clean energy workers
December 9, 2024 // To qualify, projects have to hire registered apprentices, who are paid for their work and earn credentials while doing it, and pay the prevailing wage to their workers, a level of minimum pay generally set for workers on government contracts. While prevailing wage has "long applied" to federal projects, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, this is the first time it's been applied to clean energy tax incentives.
Michigan Legislature Is Mulling An ABC Test
October 13, 2023 // The local Chamber of Commerce warns there will be no exemptions for Michigan’s independent workers (unlike California’s AB5 which exempted over 100 occupations). The Great Lake State currently employs the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 20-factor test, which is more amenable and receptive to flexible work arrangements. HB 4391, on the other hand, would create an independent contractor disclosure notice to “self-report alleged misclassification issues” to accompany HB 4390. This timing isn’t coincidental. Michigan repealed its right-to-work law earlier this year. As I noted at IWF back in April, here’s the immediate fallout from repealing right-to-work:
What is the Employee Rights Act, and how would it advance worker freedom?
April 21, 2023 // Unlike the PRO Act – which, imbued with a dated and rigid workplace vision that is increasingly displacing American workers – the ERA would empower workers to seize more opportunity and take greater control of their futures.
Prosecutors want 19 months in prison for ex-Teamsters boss John Coli Sr. in extortion case
October 13, 2022 // In a sentencing memo filed late Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu wrote that Coli’s extortion was “prolonged, calculated, and deliberate,” involving regular bribe payments in “envelopes bursting with wads” of $25,000 in cash. Coli also “milked his position as a union official” in other ways over the years, netting him more than a half a million dollars in benefits including meals in Las Vegas, box seats at baseball and football games and the use of a yacht and two-person crew to cruise around the Italy, the prosecution filing stated.
Biden Proposal Could Lead to Employee Status for Gig Workers
October 11, 2022 // The proposal is intended as a so-called interpretive rule that doesn’t have the legal force of a regulation specifically authorized by Congress, and it applies only to laws that the department enforces, such as the federal minimum wage. States and other federal agencies, like the Internal Revenue Service, set their own criteria for employment status, and the rule would not directly affect what they decided about the status of gig workers. But many employers and regulators in other jurisdictions are likely to consider the department’s interpretation when making decisions about worker classification, and many judges are likely to use it as a guide. As a result, the proposal is a potential blow to gig companies and other service providers that argue their workers are contractors, though it would not immediately affect the status of those workers.
Accountant Imprisoned for Taking $1M from New Orleans Firefighters Fund
July 15, 2022 // Wayne Triche, 72, pleaded guilty in March to charges of wire fraud and tax fraud. U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry sentenced Triche to 41 months in prison. He must also pay $937,659 in restitution to the New Orleans Firefighters Pension and Relief Fund (NOFPRF) and $329,895 to the Internal Revenue Service as part of the sentence. From 2009 to 2017, Triche embezzled approximately $937,659 from the fund, which is separate from the city and the fire department and is intended to administer survivor, disability and retirement benefits to participating firefighters. Triche also lied about his income, failing to claim the embezzled funds on his taxes from 2013 to 2016, which is how the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS nabbed him in a joint investigation. U.S. Attorney Duane Evans, George Russell, at American Pension Consultants,
Teachers Unions Fund Left Wing Politics
June 1, 2022 // The LM-2 also lists another $117 million spent for “contributions, gifts and grants,” that were primarily political in nature. Even more despicably, the NEA dispersed more than $55 million in benefits to union officers. That’s almost twice as much as it spent advocating for the teachers from whose paychecks the dues were confiscated
Op-Ed: Government unions divert dues to leftist politics
May 29, 2022 // According to the most recent LM-2 form submitted by the NEA to the Internal Revenue Service, the union raked in a staggering $377 million in dues and agency fees during 2021 alone. Of that total, however, only $32 million was earmarked for representational activity — ostensibly the NEA’s top priority.