Is your Construction Company Paying Prevailing Wages on Federally Funded Construction Projects?
Earlier this month a Louisiana contractor was sued by the United States Labor Department for not ensuring that subcontractors were properly
paying their employees on a federally funded contract in New Orleans. In the article, it was noted that this contractor could be blocked from obtaining government contractors for three years as a result of seven subcontractors not paying prevailing wages of nearly $100,000.
ABC Suggests Several Changes on the 3% Withholding Tax
As previously written in this blog, the 3% Withholding Tax is a proposed tax that will be levied against all payments for goods or services from federal, state, and local governments with total expenditures of $100 million beginning January 1, 2013.
The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), a national industry trade association, has suggested several changes in a letter to the IRS on August 8, 2011 as released in their recent news letter. To read ABC’s comments to the IRS please visit their newsletter on the ABC website.
AIA Architecture Billing Index has Steepest One Month Decline in Over a Year
The negative trend seen in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Architecture Billing Index (ABI) has continued through the month of July where the index saw a drastic drop from the previous month’s score from 46.3 to 45.1. Earlier this year it appeared that the industry may have begun to pull itself from the downturn with ABI scores of at least 50 or higher through the 1st quarter of 2011, however, the concern now is that the industry has not hit the bottom of the cycle, according to AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker. Continue reading »
AIA does not Project Nonresidential Construction Growth Until 2012
In an article recently released by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), it was found by the AIA Consensus Construction Forecast panel that nonresidential construction spending will decrease by 5.6% during 2011 followed by a recovery of 6.4% in 2012. These findings come despite recent good economic reports for the industry where June construction starts increased 15%, according to an article from McGraw-Hill Construction, and July construction employment reaching a 15 month high as provided by a press release from The Associated General Contractors of America. Continue reading »
FASB Approves Revised Accounting Standard for Multi-Employer Pension Plans
On July 27, 2011 the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) approved the revised accounting standard for Multi-Employer Pension Plans. This standard was originally released for public comment in September 2010 and was met with some criticism from the construction industry, so much criticism in fact that the Construction Industry FASB Coalition (The Coalition) was formed. The Coalition, led by several industry trade associations (as reported in our July 8, 2011 blog article), took on the FASB in an effort to remove several provisions of the standard. The most notable stance was against the proposed standard’s requirement to disclose a withdrawal liability to plans that a company participates in. The Coalition was successful in its negotiations as seen in the news release from the FASB regarding this accounting standard. Continue reading »
