KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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Employee Retention Credits Facts and Myths / FTC’s proposed click-to-cancel rule / Contract sale ends in 3 days
March 29, 2023
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Special Contract Sale this week – available to everyone using code below
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When's the sale? Place your order now through Friday March 31.
Orders received starting now through March 31 will be discounted 10%. If you're a Concierge Client [and you should be for lots of reasons] you get another 10% [that's 20% total]. CODE: ISC. Just add ISC to your company name so we know to apply the discount.
These are 2023 updates with the most current changes.
Do you need new contracts? Yes if you're contracts are not 2022 contracts.
Order on line at https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-contract
Call our Contract Administrator Eileen Wagda at 516 747 6700 x 312 or email EWagda@Kirschenbaumesq.com for assistance
Don't forget to add ISC to your company name so we know to apply the discount
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Employee Retention Credits Facts and Myths
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Ken,
You are getting the calls and emails “New IRS tax credit of $26,000 per employee, time is running out, don’t miss this before it is over.” The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is the last of the COVID Relief benefits hastily passed by Congress. It was initially passed three years ago at the height of the Pandemic, and it is a huge benefit for companies that experienced setbacks due to COVID. It has also become a target for fraud. The IRS believes that the fraud associated with improper credits will exceed $ trillion. Over 20 of our clients clearly qualified and took it, 60 considered it, but clearly didn’t qualify. Another 20 -30 might qualify.
Don’t fall for a pitch from some fly by night boiler room peddling a credit that you tax guys don’t understand. Don’t miss out on a huge benefit if you legitimately qualify but your tax guys are afraid to take it.
Mitch Reitman
817 698 9999 x 101
Reitman Consulting Group
http://www.reitman.us
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Response
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Mitch Reitman of Reitman Consulting Group will explain the Credit and how to qualify. Not only does he know the law behind it, he understands how Security and Fire companies can qualify for the alternate rules.
Mitch will explain the credit, the initial language authorizing it, and the numerous “clarifications” issues in the past three years.
There is still room to meet with Mitch on this topic and any other tax or accounting issues you might have. His Group Meeting is tomorrow on March 29 at 3:30 to 4PM at Prestige Lounge. Contact Mitch directly to confirm that you’re attending. Call 817 698 9999 x 101
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FTC’s proposed “click-to-cancel” rule
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Ken:
I would like to get your insight on the FTC’s proposed “click-to-cancel” rule and if / how it will affect our industry:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/ftc-considering-click-cancel-rule-bid-ease-pain-ending-subscriptions
Ron Boltz, President/CEO
410-546-2210
AlarmEngineering.com
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Response
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Federal Trade Commission is an administrative agency authorized to regulate interstate commerce. It meddles in all kinds of issues, including one we recently discussed involving prohibiting restrictive employment provisions in employment agreements – an issue that will most definitely effect the alarm industry if passed and enforced – it will most certainly have to overcome constitutional challenges since the US Constitution protects right to contract. We’re getting off topic.
As I read it the FTC is focusing on subscription services that self-renew in perpetuity unless canceled. Getting the subscription is apparently a lot easier than cancelling. So you can opt in for the subscription by providing your name, address, email and credit card or ACH and pushing the button on your computer or phone. Pretty easy.
Here’s how you cancel: You provide your birth certificate, passport, blood test, mother’s maiden name, why you want to cancel, fill out the exit survey, send your cancellation request on the required form by Western Union or Pony Express or hand deliver it to some address in Anchorage, Alaska.
Well FTC thinks you should be able to cancel just as easy as you subscribed; push of a button. I guess it’s fair, especially if you ever had a magazine subscription or use to get a 45 rpm record or book delivered every 3 weeks.
Anyway, I don’t think this rule will effect the alarm industry much. Not many alarm customers sign up for alarm services the same way they sign up for magazines or whatever other services are offered with the push of a button.
But what about the alarm industry? Every properly written alarm contract has an automatic renewal clause; all of them. The Standard Form Agreements provide for month to month renewal. There has been some evolution in what a party is required to do to cancel and avoid automatic renewal. Older contracts required written cancellation delivered by certified mail, return receipt requested. My aversion to certified mail eventually caused me to drop that requirement, but written notice was still required. Some states mandate the form of the notice and how it’s to be delivered, in which case the Kirschenbaum Contract for that state will provide for that method of cancellation. If there is no required method, and most states don’t have any rule on this, the Kirschenbaum Contract will require notice. In other provisions in the contract notice by email or text is approved, so I think implicitly such notice should be accepted by the alarm company to cancel service.
I can anticipate some reluctance to cancel alarm services without a very definitive authorization from the customer. After all, it’s one thing to miss this month’s magazine and another to miss a fire alarm, environmental or even intrusion alarm. This should be accomplished by the alarm company sending a confirmation of cancellation [which I confess is not required in the Standard Form Agreements – it’s only required when the alarm company initiates the termination].
What I am suggesting is we will have to wait and see if the FTC ruling even addressing the alarm industry and how its customers are signed up for service. If it does then the industry will have to come up with reasonably prudent procedures to safe guard itself from claims by customers that end up needing and not having their alarm service.
By the way, as we recently discussed, we do see automatic renewal laws popping up and being changed in states, but these laws deal primarily with a notice that the alarm company has to provide before the contract self-renews. These laws do not usually deal with how the contract is canceled.
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STANDARD FORM AGREEMENTS: To order up to date Standard Form Alarm / Security / Fire and related Agreements click here: www.alarmcontracts.com
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CONCIERGE LAWYER SERVICE PROGRAM FOR THE ALARM INDUSTRY - You can check out the program and sign up here: https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/concierge or contact our Program Coordinator Stacy Spector, Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304.
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com
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