On March 19, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced new technical guidance focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the workplace. The guidance includes a one-page summary setting forth the agencies’ view on unlawful DEI-related discrimination, as well as a Q&A.
In a case of first impression, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confirmed that whether “a term is generic is an inquiry that changes over time.”
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily paused a lower court’s injunction of two DEI-related executive orders of the Trump administration while the case is appealed. Those executive orders are therefore back in effect for now.
The same day the amended version of ESTA was enacted (February 21, 2025), the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) issued revised FAQs to answer several questions about the amendments. LEO updated its FAQs again on March 7, 2025.
Some edits to the FAQs appear to elaborate known interpretations of the law by examples, but several suggest new interpretations of the Act. In our client alert, we point out some important changes in the FAQs that may help employers navigate areas of uncertainty surrounding the amended ESTA.
Earlier this week, Treasury announced that it would not issue any fines or penalties (or take any other enforcement actions) based on a failure to file or update beneficial ownership information (BOI) within the current Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) deadlines, which were most recently extended to March 21, 2025. President Trump amplified Treasury’s announcement with […]
On February 21, 2025, the IRS issued Notice 2025-15, which provides guidance on the “alternative manner” for furnishing health insurance coverage statements (i.e., Form 1095-C) to full-time employees under Sections 6055 and 6056 of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code), as amended by the Paperwork Burden Reduction Act (PBRA). The PBRA, which was recently signed into law by President Biden on December 23, 2024, allows employers that provide minimum essential coverage to individuals to satisfy the reporting requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by posting a “clear, conspicuous, and accessible” notice that individuals may request a copy of their Form 1095-C, instead of the employer automatically sending the statement to each applicable full-time employee.
On February 18, 2025, the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services issued bulletin 2025-05-INS, which has significant implications for medical providers seeking payment of auto no-fault claims.
On February 21, U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction related to several portions of two DEI-related executive orders issued by President Trump during his first days in office.
Today the Michigan legislature passed significant changes to the Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA) and minimum wage law. These changes will take effect immediately.
The sole remaining nationwide impediment to Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) enforcement was lifted earlier this week in response to a January ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court and a February petition in a separate (but related) case by the Department of Justice under new Trump Administration leadership. Consistent with the Government’s application to lift the […]
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The sole remaining nationwide impediment to Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) enforcement was lifted earlier this week in response to a January ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court and a February petition in a separate (but related) case by the Department of Justice under new Trump Administration leadership. Consistent with the Government’s application to lift the injunction in Smith, et al. v. U.S. Department of the Treasury, et al. (discussed in our prior alert), FinCEN has extended the CTA beneficial ownership information (BOI) filing deadline for most companies by 30 days to March 21, 2025.
Some reporting companies will have even longer to submit their BOI filings because of previously-announced extensions resulting from other litigation or disaster relief exemptions issued for certain regions impacted by the 2024 hurricane season. Additionally, FinCEN announced it would provide another update before March 21 of “any further modification of this [new] deadline,” as the Treasury department plans to use the extended 30-day filing period to “assess its option to further modify deadlines, while prioritizing reporting for those entities that pose the most significant national security risks.” FinCEN would likely undertake a new rulemaking process to propose any additional exemptions or further extended deadlines for “lower-risk entities, including many U.S. small businesses.”
In light of these developments, Miller Johnson’s CTA Task Force strongly encourages non-exempt reporting companies – including small businesses – to recommence information gathering, analyses and communications that would be needed to meet the new March 21 filing deadline.
While it is possible that some entities will ultimately be exempted from the CTA or receive the benefit of yet another filing deadline extension, we presently have no indication from the Treasury Department or FinCEN what specific characteristics would qualify an entity as “low risk” under a revamped CTA framework. Even companies that already submitted initial BOI filings should consider revisiting their previous analyses, since any subsequent changes to their BOI reports would need to be reported to FinCEN promptly. Prospects for Congressional initiatives to repeal, delay or revamp the CTA are also unclear at this time.
While few organizations will be excited by the notion of recommitting time and resources to CTA analyses and information gathering, our CTA Task Force has found that the process can be handled with relatively little disruption to clients’ day-to-day activities. In some cases, the CTA review process can be combined with a more general analysis and refresh of corporate records and organizational documents with benefits outside the compliance function.
We encourage you to follow our CTA updates and reach out to your Miller Johnson contact or a member of our CTA Task Force if you have any questions or would like to discuss an engagement to support CTA reporting obligations, either discretely or as part of a more general corporate records refresh and review. Thank you.
