Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued its final overtime rule (the “Rule”), dramatically increasing the minimum salary threshold required to qualify for the Federal Labor Standards Act’s (the “FLSA”) white collar exemptions.

Many retailers are failing to assess the true contribution their stores make as part of the multi-channel business model and customer journey, which in turn can result in poorly informed store closure programmes, resulting in sub-optimal formats and further decline.

As is often the case in practical tax planning, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” On April 4, 2016, the IRS and Treasury issued proposed regulations under the authority of Section 385 of the Internal Revenue Code. Numerous commentators have questioned the IRS and Treasury’s authority to create several of the rules in these regulations. As a result, their validity may or may not be upheld in court, if the regulations are finalized as proposed. Unfortunately, while the possibility of a future court battle between taxpayers and the IRS over these regulations may be of major academic interest, it is of no present or practical help to internal tax departments that are undoubtedly asking the questions, “What do these regulations mean to my company? What should I be doing about them now?”

Drug overdose deaths in the United States averaged a record 118 per day in 2014, with prescription opioids (e.g., Vicodin, Percocet ) accounting for 40 to 50 percent of the total. Heroin, formerly the scourge of poor and urban areas, has now penetrated middle-to-high-income suburban areas with a low cost, high potency product. Fentanyl, with 40 to 50 times the potency of pure heroin, is also available. Alarming headlines, combined with growing evidence of death and devastation, has led to an outcry for additional legislation, manpower and funding to address substance abuse and dependency disorders.

On April 4, 2016, the IRS and Treasury released two sets of proposed and temporary regulations that caused various taxpayers, investment bankers and large sectors of the investment community, particularly in the pharmaceutical and biomed sectors, to sound alarm bells.

Performance Management is an umbrella term encompassing the processes and applications that support strategy development, planning and forecasting, financial management, profitability management, and reporting and analytics. EPM, CPM and BI are popular acronyms referring to Performance Management. At A&M, we call it Integrated Performance Management (IPM) because we believe that the core of management excellence and achieving the success of our clients’ programs is integration.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been busy of late producing internal guidance for its examiners (both specialists and non-specialists) for use in auditing foreign and cross-border transactions.

To understand compensation practices in the energy sector, specifically, for exploration and production (E&P) companies, Alvarez & Marsal’s Executive Compensation and Benefits Practice examined the latest proxy statements for 100 of the largest E&P companies in the U.S.

Stress Test Scenarios and Forecasts for Market Uncertainty: In the second paper of our two-part series in A&M Readings in Quantitative Risk Management, we continue to examine the behavior of human beings in times of financial stress and how the changes in human behavior impact stress testing and the management of capital at banks.

The proposed EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is designed to replace the now defunct Safe Harbor scheme which was developed to protect the transfer of personal data between the EU and the United States. However, the framework only addresses one aspect of risk in dealing with data.

Because of its magnitude and complexity, U.S. tax law is rife with ‘‘traps for the unwary.’’

Chapters 3-32 and 4-156 of the Municipal Code of Chicago impose taxes on personal property leases and amusement transactions, respectively. These laws were broadly drafted, but significant technological advancements since the effective date of these chapters have further broadened their scopes.

After several years of evolutionary changes, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced on January 26, 2015, a timeline of moving from volume to value in Medicare payments; i.e., from 30 percent of provider payments in 2016 to 50 percent by 2018.1 Implementation of the Comprehensive Care Joint Replacement initiative signals an intention to mandate, at least for targeted geographic areas, a value-oriented payment system across the entire continuum of care, from surgery and inpatient care to post-acute care recovery and rehabilitation.

Data is the lifeblood of most modern-day organizations. Email, infographics, databases, presentations, payroll systems, audio, video and spreadsheets are just a sampling of the types of data that comprise a business entity. The challenge with data is that it is portable, easily manipulated and relatively effortless to duplicate.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created by the Dodd-Frank Act, is shifting its focus to the nonbank sector. Institutions such as mortgage companies (originators, brokers, servicers, and provider of loan modification or foreclosure services), payday lenders and private education lenders now fall under the CFPB lens. Further, through the ‘larger participant rule’ in Dodd-Frank, the CFPB is now the first federal regulator to supervise other nonbank markets.