Month: December 2021

Retail sales rose slower than economists had expected in November following three straight months of sharp increases, according to data released Wednesday by the Census Bureau.

U.S. retailers and restaurants made $639.8 billion in sales last month, up just 0.3 percent from October and well below the 0.8 percent increase projected by analysts. October’s retail sales gain was revised up to 1.8 percent, a 0.1 percentage point increase from the initially reported figure.

Sales at department stores sank 5.4 percent last month and purchases at electronics stores fell by 4.6 percent, the Census Bureau reported. Sales by online retailers were flat, though sporting goods, hobby, music and book stores saw sales rise by 1.3 percent.

While a retail sales slowdown during the holiday shopping season would typically be cause for alarm, November’s tepid growth followed three straight months of expectations-beating increases.

Retailers and supply chain experts urged consumers to buy their holiday gifts early to ensure they could check off their lists before Christmas. Those warnings may have pulled sales that would have occurred in November  forward into October or September.

In the coming week, the Federal Reserve could decide to speed up the end of its bond-buying program and signal that it expects to start hiking interest rates in 2022.

In testimony before a Senate panel on Nov. 30, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell tipped the warning that the central bank would discuss speeding the taper of its $120 billion monthly bond purchases at the December meetings. His comments followed a parade of Fed speakers, who all suggested the central bank could end the program sooner than the current timeline of June 2022.

In November, the Fed announced it would wind down its $120 billion in monthly bond purchases at a pace of $15 billion a month.  The bond-buying program, known as quantitative easing, was put in place in early 2020 to help the economy and financial markets combat the impact of the pandemic. The Fed also had quickly slashed its fed funds target rate to zero.

In its last forecast, the Fed’s so-called dot-plot chart of inflation forecasts shows that half the Fed officials expected one or two rate hikes next year, but there was no consensus for a hike. The first hikes were in 2023. That is likely to change in the updated forecast, with possibly two hikes penciled in for next year.

Powell also acknowledged during his recent testimony that inflation could be more of a problem than the central bank thought, and that it was time to retire the description of inflation as “transitory,” or temporary. Indeed, the consumer price index for November surged to its fastest rate in nearly 40 years.

President Biden is signing an executive order on Monday intended to cut back on the bureaucracy around government services for the public such as renewing their passports, applying for loans or changing their name.

The order, which Biden will sign on Monday afternoon, affects 36 “customer experience improvement commitments” across 17 federal agencies. The order targets various government services dealing with travel, retirement, business, health and updating personal information, according to a White House fact sheet.

For example, the order will call for a streamlined enrollment experience for retirees looking to enroll in Social Security, and it will allow retirees to more easily claim benefits online.

Taxpayers will be given new online tools to make filing more easy, and filers will have the option to schedule customer service call-backs instead of waiting on hold.

The order will call for Americans to be able to renew their passports online rather than dealing with print forms, and it will aim to streamline the process for travelers with urgent questions for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The order will also aim to ease the bureaucracy around both student loans and business loans.

The order will create a single portal for the millions of individuals with student loan debt, and small business owners will have a more streamlined process for working with the Small Business Administration on loans, grants and certifications.

A draft plan that will influence the future of transportation in the state is available for review and comment, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation announced today.

Connect 2050, Wisconsin’s statewide multimodal transportation plan required by federal law, will help guide infrastructure investments through 2050. The draft version of the plan is available at connect2050.wisconsindot.gov. Comments on the plan can be submitted through January 24, 2022.

“Everyone relies on transportation infrastructure, and this is a great opportunity to shape its future in Wisconsin,” WisDOT Secretary Craig Thompson said. “Thank you to all those who support our efforts to plan improvements. The draft Connect 2050 plan relied on more than 2,200 survey responses, 2,400 written comments and participation from every county in Wisconsin. Please continue to make your voice heard.”

Connect 2050 establishes goals and objectives that will guide and support development of an integrated, efficient, and safe multimodal transportation system.

Comments on the plan can be submitted online. A mail-in form can be requested by calling (608) 266-3581 or emailing opa.exec@dot.wi.gov​.

Tens of millions of Americans could see their bank account information swept up and reported to the Internal Revenue Service under a deeply controversial proposal from Congressional Democrats, according to a new analysis.

The plan requires banks and other financial institutions to disclose accounts with $10,000 of annual deposits or outflows to the IRS, a move intended to help the agency crack down on wealthy tax cheats. Recipients of federal benefits like unemployment and Social Security would be exempt from the policy under the latest iteration of the proposal, which would also exclude any income received through a paycheck in which federal taxes are automatically deducted.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that some 87 million Americans who earn less than $400,000 in adjusted gross income would see their account information reported to the IRS. That represents a little more than half — about 59% — of the 148 million taxpayers in the U.S. earning less than $400,000.

The White House has repeatedly defended the plan in the face of bank criticism, writing in a memo to congressional Democrats that requiring banks and financial institutions to provide a “little bit of high-level information” to the IRS on account flows gives the agency more information about wealthy Americans’ earnings from investments and business activity.

Each December, the Wisconsin Policy Forum examines preliminary state data on property tax levies from school districts, counties, technical colleges, and special districts. (Figures for municipalities are not available until early next year.) The data give a crucial early look at collections from Wisconsin’s largest single tax, which serves as a key source of funding for local services such as education, public safety, and local roads.

Property tax bills being mailed out this month for 2022 show an increase in gross property taxes for Wisconsin’s K-12 school districts of just 0.3%, from $5.38 to $5.40 billion. This is the smallest percentage increase in school district levies since a 0.1% increase in 2016.

Property tax levies for counties will rise by 2.3% statewide, similar to the increase from last year. Levies for Wisconsin’s 16 technical colleges will fall by 3.4% – just their second decline of the 21^st century – due to additional state aid dollars.

Notably, this analysis looks at gross property tax levies before state credits are used to lower the net bills for property taxpayers. While two of the state credits essentially will stay the same, the state lottery credit is budgeted to rise by $85 million this year, which should help to hold overall property taxes for home and business owners to one of the smallest increases in recent years.

The Internal Revenue Service today issued guidance for employers regarding the retroactive termination of the Employee Retention Credit. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was enacted on November 15, 2021, amended the law so that the Employee Retention Credit applies only to wages paid before October 1, 2021, unless the employer is a recovery startup business.

Notice 2021-65 applies to employers that paid wages after September 30, 2021 and received an advance payment of the Employee Retention Credit for those wages or reduced employment tax deposits in anticipation of the credit for the fourth quarter of 2021 but are now ineligible for the credit due to the change in the law. The notice also provides guidance regarding how the rules apply to recovery startup businesses during the fourth quarter of 2021.

Employers who Received Advance Payments

Generally, employers that are not recovery startup businesses and received advance payments for fourth quarter wages of 2021 will avoid failure to pay penalties if they repay those amounts by the due date of their applicable employment tax returns.

Employers who Reduced Employment Tax Deposits

Employers that reduced deposits on or before December 20, 2021, for wages paid during the fourth calendar quarter of 2021 in anticipation of the Employee Retention Credit and that are not recovery startup businesses will not be subject to a failure to deposit penalty with respect to the retained deposits if—

1. The employer reduced deposits in anticipation of the Employee Retention Credit, consistent with the rules in Notice 2021-24 ,
2. The employer deposits the amounts initially retained in anticipation of the Employee Retention Credit on or before the relevant due date for wages paid on December 31, 2021 (regardless of whether the employer actually pays wages on that date). Deposit due dates will vary based on the deposit schedule of the employer, and
3. The employer reports the tax liability resulting from the termination of the employer’s Employee Retention Credit on the applicable employment tax return or schedule that includes the period from October 1, 2021, through December 31, 2021. Employers should refer to the instructions to the applicable employment tax return or schedule for additional information on how to report the tax liability.

Due to the termination of the Employee Retention Credit for wages paid in the fourth quarter of 2021 for employers that are not recovery startup businesses, failure to deposit penalties are not waived for these employers if they reduce deposits after December 20, 2021.

If an employer does not qualify for relief under this Notice, it may reply to a notice about a penalty with an explanation and the IRS will consider reasonable cause relief.

For a brief moment, large swaths of the U.S. employment law community have their eyes glued to one particularly lengthy court docket: BST Holdings, LLC, et al v. OSHA, et al, the consolidated proceedings on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s COVID-19 vaccination Emergency Temporary Standard now before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Since the case’s assignment, the 6th Circuit has established a timeline for parties to file motions to modify, revoke or extend the stay on the ETS placed by the 5th Circuit. As expected, multiple parties have filed motions in the suit, creating a situation that is rarely seen in the circuit court context. “It’s kind of all over the place,” said Andrew MacDonald, partner at Fox Rothschild, “and the court doesn’t have any power to stop the parties from filing motions.”

Of all the motions filed, however, perhaps the most important is OSHA’s motion to dissolve the 5th Circuit’s stay on the ETS, according to Sean Marotta, partner at Hogan Lovells; “Keep an eye on the stay, because the stay will probably be the thing that determines whether this goes into effect at all.”

The 6th Circuit could make a decision on OSHA’s motion at any point after Dec. 10, MacDonald said, but the timing is such that the agency would not be able to enforce the ETS on time. “OSHA can’t enforce this until the court says otherwise,” he continued.

Even after that decision, many expect the losing side to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Both Marotta and MacDonald said that the High Court could hear an appeal of the 6th Circuit’s decision as part of its so-called “shadow docket.” That would mean the Supreme Court would quickly render a decision on the issue without a full briefing or oral arguments, said MacDonald, but he added that the court may choose not to do so.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court would have to go “pedal to the metal” in its review if it were to issue a ruling on the ETS before the standard’s May 4, 2022, expiration date, Marotta said. At that point, the ETS would either no longer be in effect, or OSHA would institute a permanent standard.

But most, if not many, employers who want to implement a mandate have already done so regardless of the ETS, said MacDonald; “There is nothing in the law stopping most employers from issuing their own vaccine mandate through the authority of being an employer.” OSHA’s action also may further encourage employers to adopt mandates even if it never takes effect.

“Employers should just monitor the situation and not rush out any mandates without checking whether they need to or want to,” MacDonald said.

President Biden further detailed his winter plan to combat COVID-19 within the United States in an op-ed Thursday, reiterating his vow that there would not be “shutdowns or lockdowns.”

His plan largely calls for a doubling down on getting the COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots for Americans who are eligible. He said the nationwide booster campaign would be expanded to incorporate more walk-in appointments, longer hours and weekends.

The President also pledged that at-home COVID-19 test kits would be covered by insurance companies or provided free for people to pick up if they did not have private insurance coverage.

The President also suggested that the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention may weigh in on ways for schools to remain open amid the COVID-19 pandemic as the country sees more cases from the newly detected omicron variant.

Wisconsin’s 134 state-chartered banks continue to exhibit strong financial performance as of September 30, 2021, according to data released on Thursday by the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI).

Total assets of Wisconsin’s state-chartered banks stand at more than $67.8 billion through September 30, 2021, an increase of nearly $5.1 billion from September 30, 2020. Excess liquidity from the extension of the COVID-19 pandemic’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans combined with the low interest rate environment has put pressure on the net interest margin, decreasing it from 3.49% in September 2020 to 3.35% as of September 30, 2021. Net loans have decreased 2.16% from September 2020, down $949.6 million, due, in part, to PPP loans being forgiven or paid down.

In the twelve months ending on September 30, 2021:

• The capital ratio remained strong at 10.97% compared to 11.12% in September 2020;

• The past due ratio declined to 0.76% from mid-pandemic levels when the ratio was 1.17% in September 2020;

• Net operating income was over $679.3 million compared to $557.1 million in September 2020.

• Bank liquidity has been strong, putting pressure on the loans to assets ratio at 64.82% compared to mid-pandemic liquidity levels of 71.57% in September 2020.