#compliance
Navigate regulatory compliance and maintain audit-ready financial records
Connecticut's amended Data Privacy Act took effect July 1, 2026, cutting the applicability threshold from 100,000 to 35,000 consumers, adding zero-threshold triggers for sensitive data and data sales, and removing the guaranteed 60-day cure period. Here is what changed, what arrives October 1, and a six-step checklist for small businesses.
Any business hosting user uploads, reviews, or listings loses DMCA safe harbor unless it designates an agent with the Copyright Office for $6, renews that designation every three years, and actually enforces a repeat-infringer policy. This guide covers registration, the six elements of a valid takedown notice, the 10-to-14-business-day putback window, and the records that prove compliance.
Federal law lets employers exclude up to eight hours of sleep time from a shift of 24 hours or more — never from a shorter one — and only with adequate sleeping quarters, usually uninterrupted sleep, and an agreement. Every interruption is paid, and fewer than five consecutive hours of sleep makes the entire window compensable.
Three FMCSA final rules effective July 22, 2026 end federal CDL conviction self-reporting, drop the in-cab ELD operator's manual, and make roadside inspection report returns on-request only. Hours-of-service limits, drug-and-alcohol testing, annual MVR checks, driver qualification files and defect correction are unchanged; this guide covers what moved, what did not, and a 30-day small-fleet checklist.
Every U.S. employer must report each new hire and qualifying rehire to a State Directory of New Hires within 20 days of the first day of paid work, and electronic filers may batch reports 12 to 16 days apart. This guide covers the six required data points, the one-state designation that lets multistate employers file to a single directory, California and New York independent-contractor reporting rules, and the federal penalty cap of $25 per unreported employee rising to $500 for collusion.
Cash wages are wages — Publication 15 withholding, EFTPS deposits, Form 941 and W-2 reporting all apply in full. The illegal part is the missing paper trail, and it costs back taxes, stacked penalties, and personal liability for 100% of unpaid trust fund taxes under IRC section 6672.
USERRA covers every US employer with no headcount minimum. When an employee is called to military service, you must reemploy them promptly at the "escalator" position they would have reached, continue health coverage for up to 24 months, credit seniority and pension benefits as if they never left, and honor return deadlines of 14 or 90 days depending on service length. This guide lays out the five reemployment conditions, the anti-discrimination rules, what federal law does not require, and a before-during-after bookkeeping checklist for small employers.
Since July 1, 2026, a Washington homeowner holding an unsatisfied court judgment against a registered contractor can collect up to $25,000 per parcel from L&I's Homeowner Recovery Program, and the state then pursues the contractor for reimbursement. This guide covers the eligibility rules, the $30,000 general and $15,000 specialty bond requirements, and the job-costing, change-order, retention and sales-tax bookkeeping habits that keep a dispute from ending in a judgment.
When an employee quits before the employer match vests, the unvested dollars land in the plan's forfeiture account. The IRS's proposed rule would give sponsors 12 months after the plan year closes to use them — on plan expenses, on reducing future employer contributions, or by reallocating to participants — and stale multi-year suspense balances are already a standard audit finding.
Brazil's IBS/CBS dual VAT replaces five consumption taxes, and a Simples Nacional supplier now passes on a smaller input credit than a regular-regime competitor quoting the same price. A guide to the September 30 and November 1, 2026 deadlines, the 2027 end of cash-basis Simples, and what the credit chain changes in B2B pricing and bookkeeping.
Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook filter mail from domains without SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and bulk senders must also keep spam complaints under 0.3% and offer one-click unsubscribe. Here is what each DNS record proves, how to publish all three in about an hour, the seven mistakes that keep small-business invoices in spam, and why unread invoices show up in your receivables.
Effective January 1, 2026, California SB 517 amends Business and Professions Code Section 7159 to require every home improvement contract to include a yes/no subcontractor checkbox, a statutory disclaimer when the answer is yes, and that same disclaimer on every change order — with the prime contractor still responsible for completing the job.
