February 27, 2008
John O'Donnell will present "Legal Aspects of Foodborne Illnesses" to the Pennsylvania Tourism & Lodging Association / Pennsylvania Restaurant Association Food and Beverage Conference being held at the Harrisburg Hilton in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
March 11 - 12
Steve Lovejoy will present a "Federal Update of Mortgage Law" at the Maryland Association of Mortgage Brokers "March Madness" taking place at the Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. |
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Offices
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3425 Simpson Ferry Road Camp Hill, PA 17011 Telephone: 717.763.1121 Facsimile: 717.763.7419
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40 W. Chesapeake Avenue Towson, MD 21204 Telephone: 410.825.5223 Facsimile: 410.825.5426
York
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Email
mail@shumakerwilliams.com
Website
www.shumakerwilliams.com
Editor
David J. Ledermann
Editorial Staff
Michele Connor
Publishing/Layout
Jeffrey A. Lee
We believe that providing our clients with timely information on developments in the law will enable them to make effective business decisions. We have dedicated ourselves to providing our clients with current information. This newsletter serves as one vehicle of promptly reporting to our clients. It is provided at no cost and outside of any professional relationship with a person, entity or file. The information contained in this newsletter is merely the opinions and thoughts of the authors and does not, in any way, constitute legal or professional advice.
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 Business Tax Breaks Under The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
By David J. Ledermann
On February 13, 2008, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 was signed into law. In addition to the much publicized advance rebates under the Act for eligible individual taxpayers, the Act includes a number of favorable tax provisions for businesses. The Act encourages investment in capital goods and equipment in 2008 by boosting expensing and reinstituting 50% bonus first-year depreciation.
Under pre-Act law, taxpayers could expense (i.e., deduct currently, as opposed to taking depreciation deductions over a period of years) up to $128,000 for 2008. This annual expensing limit was to be reduced by the amount that the cost of qualifying property placed in service during 2008 exceeded $510,000. (More favorable rules apply in certain circumstances, such as for qualifying empowerment zone property.) The amount of the expensing deduction is limited to the amount of taxable income from any of the taxpayer's active trades or businesses...
Complete Article
 Permitted Recapture or Illegal Prepayment Charge? By Harry Levy
In a variety of consumer lending situations, financial institutions frequently offer borrowers an incentive by waiving the borrower's payment of closing costs for a loan. That offer is sometimes conditioned upon the borrower's agreement not to refinance or pre-pay the loan for a specified period. For credit lines, such as home equity line products, the borrower agrees not to close the account for a stated period. The Court of Appeals of Maryland has determined that these arrangements violate Maryland law, at least in the case of closed end loans.
The facts are straightforward and typical. Andrew Bednar obtained a second mortgage from Provident Bank in August, 2003. Bednar signed a waiver certificate stating that, as a condition of Provident waiving Bednar's payment of closing costs, Bednar agreed not to repay the loan for three years following settlement. In the event Bednar paid the loan within three years, the waiver certificate allowed Provident to recapture the waived closing costs by adding them to the balance of the loan when paid in full...
"No-Match" = No Good: New Regulations Governing Social Security No-Match Letters
Background
United States employers are required to report social security earnings for their employees. Those earnings are listed on reports that include each employee's name, social security number and earnings. The reports are filed with the Social Security Administration (SSA).
In some cases, the social security number and employee name cannot be matched up in the SSA's records. In this situation, the SSA sends a letter informing the employer of the "no-match." United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may issue a similar letter, known as a "notice of suspect documents," after auditing an employer's Employment Eligibility Verification forms (Form I-9) and finding evidence that an immigration status or employment authorization document does not match the name of the person on the Form I-9...
Complete Article | |
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