In This Issue
- Reminder to Dealers: NADA District Director Election Coming Up
- D.C. Region Prepares to Start Re-Opening
- Maryland SALT Workaround for Pass-Throughs Takes Effect July 1
- Dept. of Labor Issues Final Rule on Non-Exempt Salaried Workers
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Washington-area NADA members will be selecting a regional director this year, and WANADA encourages all our eligible member dealers to participate.
Geoff Pohanka
has served the metro Washington, D.C. district admirably as the regional NADA director, and now represents the interests of regional dealers as the chair of the association’s Industry Relations Committee.
Geoff Pohanka is running for another term as director and, with that in mind, NADA will be soliciting nominations for regional directors in the coming weeks. All NADA members in the metro Washington region should receive a nomination ballot in the mail no later than June 12; please complete and return the ballot in short order, so that it is
received
(as opposed to postmarked) before July 3. Members will only be able to nominate one person.
All nominees who receive at least 10 percent of the total votes cast will then be placed on the general election ballot; those will be mailed to metro Washington members at the end of July, with a requirement that the completed ballot be received by NADA no later than August 21. If only one member is nominated, the general election will be cancelled and that nominee will serve the upcoming three-year term.
WANADA thanks Geoff Pohanka for his service to the Washington area’s new auto dealers on the national board, and we encourage all eligible member dealers to participate in this year’s election process.
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Leaders across the Washington area reaffirmed their commitment to beginning the re-opening process over the coming week, with D.C. and Northern Virginia likely to shift towards their versions of an initial re-opening by Friday. But while more businesses may be re-opening in the region in the near future, it is increasingly clear that mandatory mask usage will be a hallmark of commercial activity for months to come.
On Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Northern Virginia, Accomack County, and the city of Richmond would soon join the rest of the commonwealth in shifting to “phase one” of the
Forward Virginia re-opening plan
. Under
Executive Order 61
, which was suspended for the jurisdictions listed above, many non-essential businesses in the rest of the commonwealth are currently allowed to open at 50 percent of their lowest published capacity, so long as they can enforce social distancing requirements.
At the same time, Gov. Northam announced that he will be instituting a statewide face-covering requirement on Friday, at the same time the state fully shifts into phase one. Masks are currently required for employees of public-facing businesses, but beginning this weekend all patrons will need to wear them indoors as well. Masks will also be required on public transit, and when accessing state and local government services. Children under 10 and those with medical conditions that would make mask-wearing inadvisable are exempt from the order.
In the District of Columbia, Mayor Muriel Bowser said the city continues to make progress, and the city will almost certainly be able to enter their version of stage one under the
ReOpen DC plan
. Under the city’s plan, which is more stringent in some parts than those in Maryland and Virginia, non-essential retailers will be able to re-open for curbside service, while limited outdoor sit-down dining will also be permitted. Many facilities, including museums, pools, theatres, and gyms, will remain closed. All non-essential retailers will be limited to either a capacity of 5 patrons per 1,000 square feet of indoor space or 50 percent capacity, whichever is lower.
Read More
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Under Maryland
Senate Bill 523
, which was enacted into law earlier this month without Gov. Larry Hogan's signature, pass-through entities will be able to tax advantage of a higher State and Local Tax deduction, which had been capped at $10,000 under the federal tax reform bill passed in 2017.
SB 523 will allow pass-through entities (defined for this purpose to include, at minimum, S-corps, LLCs, partnerships, and business trusts) to pay income taxes directly at the entity level and then afford their members and partners the chance to claim a state tax credit against those taxes. This option is an elective one, not mandatory.
There may be reasons why a partner or outright owner of a pass-through entity may not wish to claim this new workaround. The provision will take effect beginning with this current tax year, and WANADA encourages you to speak with your CPA or financial advisor to determine if this credit is right for you or your business.
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Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division
issued a final rule
that explicitly allows employers to offer bonuses, commissions, and other incentive-based payments to non-exempt salaried workers whose work hours vary week to week. According to a
press release issued by DOL
, the rule will go into effect 60 days after it is published in the
federal register
.
You can view the full text of
the final rule here
. In addition to providing employers with certainty that they are able to offer bonuses to non-exempt workers with varying work schedules, the rule also specifies a calculation process for how these of supplemental payments fit into calculating an employee's rate of pay for overtime purposes.
The ability of businesses to offer bonuses to non-exempt workers with fluctuating workweeks had been a source of debate in federal court over the past decade, with contradictory rulings leading many employers to stop offering bonuses to non-exempt salaried employees. This rule explicitly codifies a procedure for offering bonuses to non-exempt workers, which will hopefully benefit non-exempt workers and employers alike.
According to the text of the final rule, the Department is also taking this regulatory step in order to help employers more effectively develop flexible work schedules in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government says "this rule will make it easier for employers and employees to agree to unique scheduling arrangements while allowing employees to retain access to the bonuses and premiums they would otherwise earn."
Please note that this rule does not inherently supersede other state and local wage and employment laws; WANADA encourages you to reach out to your legal counsel if you need clarification on how this new rule might impact your business' specific operations.
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