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In this episode, host Jonathan Havens, co-chair of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Food, Beverage and Agribusiness (FBA) Practice, and colleague Stephen Ravin, a partner in the firm’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring Practice, speak with Spencer Ware, Managing Director and Retail Practice Leader of national business advisory firm Riveron. They consider the challenges facing the food and beverage industry in the post-COVID world, from labor shortages and turnover to the effects of inflation on the prices of food, gasoline, and fertilizer. They explore how restaurants need to be flexible with their offerings, pricing and operations to thrive, for example by trimming portion sizes, maintaining flexible hours, and/or adapting menu items as the availability of certain proteins change. Finally, noting that restaurants and food suppliers have more negotiating power than ever before, the group discusses how it is imperative to work out arrangements with landlords and lenders at the earliest sign of trouble in order to remain financially sound.
In this episode, host Jonathan Havens, co-chair of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Food, Beverage and Agribusiness (FBA) Practice, speaks with Brian Berger, principal and founding partner of JBH Advisory Group, which provides a variety of advisory services to stakeholders involved in scalable food service throughout the hospitality industry. They discuss the challenge of trying to maintain consistency in an industry where the product experience can never be the same twice, and how tools such as data analytics and strategic purchasing can be leveraged to that end. They also examine how innovations developed years ago, such as ghost kitchens and ventless cooking methodologies, have helped operators in the food and beverage industry adapt to pandemic-related challenges, particularly labor shortages and supply chain issues.
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Reductions in force during 2020 that resulted in significant turnover in active retirement plan participation could constitute a partial plan termination that requires 100% vesting of affected employees. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 temporarily modifies prior IRS guidance on how to make a partial termination determination. This new, temporary statutory provision looks solely at whether the number of active plan participants on March 31, 2021 is at least 80% of the number of active plan participants on March 13, 2020. Click
If you have part-time employees and sponsor a 401(k) plan, the SECURE Act requires your plan to permit part-time employees who complete at least 500 hours of service over three continuous 12-month periods (and satisfy any eligibility age requirement) to make elective deferral contributions. Periods of service before January 1, 2021 are not counted to determine participation eligibility, and the plan does not have to provide other employer contributions to these “long-service, part-time employees.”
The coronavirus relief and government funding bill enacted on December 27, 2020, includes many tax provisions among its more than 5,500 pages. This alert summarizes the key tax credits available to support employers through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Tax rules require retirement plan participants to start their benefits by a specific date. Generally, this date is based on the age of the participant and whether the participant is still working after reaching that age. Before the SECURE Act, these distributions – called Required Minimum Distributions or RMDs – had to start by a “Required Beginning Date” which was April 1 of the calendar year following the date the participant reaches age 70-1/2, or, if later, April 1 of the calendar year after the participant’s employment terminates.
Plan sponsors of safe-harbor 401(k) plans find it difficult to satisfy the conditions permitting them to amend safe-harbor plans mid-year to reduce or eliminate the employer safe harbor nonelective or matching contribution. They either had to reserve the right to amend the plan in the annual safe harbor notice provided to plan participants or be operating at an economic loss. In addition, in order to make any change to a safe harbor plan mid-year, participants had to be given an advance 30-day notice of the amendment.