CHARTING A PATH FORWARD

Last month the board and leadership gathered outside of Atlanta for our spring board meeting and strategic planning retreat. Strategic plans are not new to NAPEO, but this year we focused not only on creating a vision for where we wanted to go, but also a tool we can measure progress against along the way.

Not surprisingly with our engaged membership, the conversations were thoughtful and constructive. We left with clear strategic imperatives for the coming months and years, and we’re hard at work fleshing out the rest of the plan ahead of our May board meeting. I am confident this plan will be a useful guide as we work together to achieve meaningful progress for the industry and the businesses we support.

Of course, one of the ways PEOs support American businesses is helping them be more efficient by taking on a lot of their backend burdens. But the same can’t be said about antiquated processes and technologies still employed by the IRS. There should be no place for the fax machine in 2025.

That’s why we’ve created and launched our Retire the Fax Machine campaign to push administration officials to institute secure, digital technology to transmit tax forms. This is a win-win for everyone involved: IRS employees will finally be equipped with technology that will make their jobs easier, PEOs will have a more efficient and secure way to submit client information and requests, and clients could track claims and returns through the system.

We’ve received positive support from lawmakers on this issue which is just another reminder of how important our relationships on Capitol Hill are.

Speaking of our friends on the Hill, at the time of writing we’re anticipating the introduction of a piece of legislation that would clarify in federal statute that tax credit liability belongs with those who benefit from it, not a PEO. Through concerted lobbying and effective use of NAPEO PAC dollars, we’ve built productive relationships with the bill’s bipartisan co-sponsors Reps. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) and Mike Thompson (D-CA).

Like everything else we do, the added support from our member government relations teams is integral to this success. Our collaborative approach is productive, and this is a great example of that collective effort.

The NAPEO team has had more than 20 meetings in the past few weeks to ensure PEO industry priorities are a part of the conversation as Congress continues to push forward on tax reform, with lawmakers evaluating priorities and associated costs of proposed tax provisions.

State legislators and regulators remained very active, too. As seems to be the new normal, we’re taking two steps forward, one step back as we work to proactively advance PEO priorities and protect against legislation and regulations that negatively impact our PEO members’ ability to operate. This is certainly true in Oregon, Maryland, Maine, New Jersey and other markets where we’re continuing to see confusion about how PEOs operate and would-be helpful policymakers creating more uncertainty for the PEO business.

This is a result of the good work NAPEO and all of our members have done to raise our profile. It has been earned over many years. We’ve always known that the more visible we became, the bigger the target on our back. We’re up for the fight because we know the indispensable work we’re doing to enable the backbone of the economy of communities all across America, small and medium sized businesses.

I’ll close by touching on the loss of industry luminary and NAPEO-past chair Mark Perlberg last month. I regrettably never met Mark, but as I’ve heard from so many of you, that would have been a great privilege. The reflection on Mark’s impact in these pages are a small token of recognition for what was certainly an oversized contribution to our industry and to many of you.

The universal praise for Mark’s character, humor and personal connection he had with so many is a testament to a life well-lived and a legacy well-earned. We should all be so lucky to leave a fraction of the impression as he clearly did. Our thoughts remain with Mark’s family and his many, many friends.