The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has updated its list of potential FUTA credit reduction states for 2018. While California and the Virgin Islands are both listed, the Virgin Islands might be the only state/territory subject to a FUTA credit reduction for 2018.

Employees who travel outside of their states of residence for business purposes are potentially subject to filing an income tax return in every other state into which they traveled, even if they were there for only one day.

The CaliforniaSupreme Court determined that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) de minimisdoctrine does not apply to claims for unpaid wages under California’s wage and hour statutes or regulations, including Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders.

On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed H.R. 1, also known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), into law (Pub. L. 115-97). The TJCA, which marks the most sweeping tax changes in 30 years, will impact payroll professionals in 2018 and beyond. Most of the changes in the TJCA took effect January 1, 2018, and will remain in effect through 2025.

The IRS has announced changes to some of the previously announced 2018 cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) [Rev. Proc. 2018-18, 2018-10 IRB 392]. The new COLA amounts reflect tax law changes created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs.

California Labor Law AB-168, which prohibits employers and its agents from inquiring salary history including benefits info from applicants went into effect January 1, 2018. Please see link below.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/fa…/billTextClient.xhtml…

On March 5, 2018, in a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court in Alvarado v. Dart Container Corporation of California clarified how employers must calculate the regular rate of pay for purposes of compensating an employee for overtime when the employee earns a flat sum bonus in a single pay period.

On January 29, the IRS released Publication 15, (Circular E), Employer’s Tax Guide.

The IRS has announced that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s (TCJA; Pub. L. 115-97) new formula for calculating inflation adjustments under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) using the Chained CPI-U do not affect the tax year 2018 dollar limitations for retirement plans the agency released last October. The IRS announced limitations for tax year 2018 in IRS Notice 2017-64

The IRS has released the 2018 Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, and an updated version of its Withholding Calculator. Both the form and the calculator have been revised to reflect changes in the tax law made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 115-97).