Consumer Law Task Force

TAX CONTROVERSY TRAINING FOR ATTORNEYS, LAW STUDENTS, CPAs and EAs 9am - 1pm November 1, 2017 Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service Office 201 N. Charles Street, #1400 Baltimore, MD 21201 The course will be taught by experienced tax attorneys, Gerald Kelly and Cheri Wendt-Taczak; IRS Local Taxpayer Advocate, James Leith; and Assistant Director, Compliance Division, Comptroller of Maryland, Jay Maschas. While the training will cover handling tax cases generally, the focus of this session will be on the mechanics of advocating for the taxpayer who is battling with tax collection issues. There is no fee to attend but each participant will be asked to accept one tax controversy case over the next six months. Please register at www.mvlslaw.org or contact Janice Shih at 443-451-4061 or jshih@mvlslaw.org for more information. Continental breakfast will be served.

Location

Location Name: 

MVLS

Address1: 

201 N. Charles Street

Address2: 

#1400

City: 

Baltimore

State: 

MD

Zip: 

21201

Contact

Name: 

Janice Shih

Phone: 

443-451-4061

Join Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (MVLS) on Wednesday October 4th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore.  We will Celebrate Pro Bono by honoring volunteer lawyers, donors and friends at our annual recognition reception.  

Guests will enjoy a cocktail hour, seated dinner and awards ceremony honoring those who have made noteworthy contributions to the delivery of pro bono legal services over the past year.  The reception also kicks off Maryland’s participation in the American Bar Association’s National Celebrate Pro Bono Week (October 22-28).

There is a suggested $35 donation to attend Celebrate Pro Bono. and RSVP is required. Registration will open in June. please check back soon for further details!

Event Sponsorship

We invite sponsors to partner with us to recognize our amazing volunteers by underwriting the cost of this great event. Sponsorship’s start at $500 and sponsors are publicly acknowledged for their generosity. Click here for a full list of sponsorship levels and benefits.

Location

Location Name: 

American Visionary Arts Museum

City: 

Baltimore

Contact

Name: 

Kim Lennon

Phone: 

443-451-4065

From the Center on Budge tand Policy Priorities:

"It is important to emphasize that, at this time, the ACA is still law and its provisions are still in place. People’s coverage hasn’t changed, and open enrollment is on schedule for November."

On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The bill now moves to the Senate, where the bill will likely change and then to a conference committee or a vote on the Senate bill in the House.

This process will take time, and we have no way of knowing now what provisions, if any, will be enacted and signed into law. We do know that many people who gained coverage due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are confused and worried about what is going to happen to their coverage. It is important to emphasize that, at this time, the ACA is still law and its provisions are still in place. People’s coverage hasn’t changed, and open enrollment is on schedule for November. 

As passed by the House, the AHCA would dramatically reverse the gains in coverage that we’ve made since the passage of the ACA. For an in-depth look at the key provisions in the AHCA, please see a summary of the AHCA from our friends at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

We will continue to follow the progress of this bill, and will keep you informed of any updates as it proceeds through the Senate. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website at www.cbpp.org includes numerous papers and resources on the AHCA and is updated on an almost daily basis with new material.

As noted, the ACA is still in place and it’s important to continue our work to help people get enrolled. To this end, we are planning an upcoming webinar that will review changes that were in the finalized Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule published last month. We will let you know as soon as we set the date for the webinar.  The new HHS rule would make sweeping changes in special enrollment periods (SEPs) and the dates for the upcoming open enrollment period for 2018 coverage. States and State-Based Marketplaces that do not rely on Healthcare.gov have some additional flexibility related to several provisions of the rule, which we will explain in more detail during the webinar.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at beyondthebasics@cbpp.org.  For additional resources and information on health reform, please see our Health Reform: Beyond the Basics website. For additional policy updates, please see our main organization website, www.cbpp.org.

Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (MVLS) is offering an exciting training for attorneys of all backgrounds to attend and make a difference for low-income Marylanders in need of tax help. Tax controversy is an area of law that any attorney can support with and typically requires limited time, but has a big impact for our clients in need.  Much of it is rules-based and involves gathering the right information to complete a form, and can be easily done in short bursts of time.  

 

MVLS invites all interested attorneys to attend a FREE training session on handling IRS and Maryland tax controversy cases for low-income taxpayers. This course is meant for all attorneys who are new to tax controversy or need a refresher. The training will cover handling tax controversy cases generally, the focus of this session will be on the mechanics of advocating for the taxpayer who is struggling with tax collection issues. Participants will be asked to take one (1) MVLS tax controversy case over the next six months. Continental Breakfast will be served.

 

To register please contact MVLS LITC Attorney Janice Shih, jshih@mvlslaw.org or 443-451-4061

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location

Location Name: 

Rosenberg Martin Greenberg

Address1: 

25 S. Charles Street

City: 

Baltimore

State: 

MD

Zip: 

21201

Contact

Name: 

Janice Shih

Phone: 

443-451-4061

Here's what it has been doing: http://connpirg.org/blogs/blog/wip/consumers-count-five-years-cfpb-standing-consumers

The statewide minimum wage in Maryland rose to $8.75 per hour on July 1, 2016.  The minimum wage in Montgomery County rose to $10.75/hour.  The minimum wage in Prince George's County will also rise to $10.75/hour on October 1, 2016.

However the minimum wage under Maryland law does not apply to some workers. See https://www.dllr.state.md.us/labor/wages/wagehrfacts.shtml for a lsit of the exceptions. Please note that the federal minimum wage, set by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) may apply to some of those exempted by the Maryland statute. FLSA sets the national minimum wage at $7.25 per hour.

REPAYE: New 10% Plan for ALL Direct Student Loan Borrowers Goes Online Next Month

The U.S. Department of Education has issued final regulations creating a new income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. Called Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE), it improves on existing plans in key ways. When REPAYE becomes available in mid-December, all borrowers with federal Direct student loans will be able to cap their monthly payments at 10% of their discretionary income, regardless of when they borrowed or their debt-to-income ratio. REPAYE also limits interest accrual for borrowers with low income relative to their debt, treats married borrowers more equitably, and better targets benefits so that higher income borrowers pay the same share of their income as lower income borrowers.

Borrowers with only undergraduate debt will become eligible for forgiveness after 20 years of payments, but REPAYE requires those with any graduate school debt to pay for 25 years on all their loans.  Many of you joined TICAS and more than 2,400 concerned individuals and organizations

in urging that payments be limited to 20 years for all borrowers.  There’s bipartisan interest in streamlining multiple IDR plans, and this time-limit is something Congress can and should fix when it creates one improved plan.

View our simple summary chart of the 5 income-driven repayment plans, including REPAYE
Read our press release on REPAYE

Our 10th Annual Report on Debt at Gradation Released at “A Decade of Student Debt”

Check out Student Debt and the Class of 2014, our tenth report on debt at graduation, issued as we celebrate TICAS’ tenth year! The report has new national, state-by-state, and college-level findings about recent bachelors’ degree recipients and a first-time look at 10-year trends. Released on October 27, it’s already been featured in news stories around the country, including in more than 25 states.  National toplines:

• At public and nonprofit colleges in 2014, seven in 10 graduating seniors had loans, and their average debt was $28,950.
• From 2004 to 2014, average debt for new graduates grew more than twice as fast as inflation.  

The release event in Washington, D.C. , called “A Decade of Student Debt,” also featured a dynamic panel discussion about what’s changed over the past 10 years and the implications for policy, moderated by Inside Higher Ed’s Doug Lederman.  We’re grateful to our expert panelists: Rohit Chopra (Center for American Progress), Tamara Draut (Dēmos), Max Espinoza (Scholarship America), and Kevin James (American Enterprise Institute).

Read Student Debt and the Class of 2014
View the interactive state map
Read the press release

*CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY: http://circuitcourtmediation.questionpro.com*

The Salisbury University Bosserman Center for Conflict Resolution is working with the Maryland Judiciary on a survey research project about attorney experience in Circuit Court Mediation Programs for Civil Non-Family Cases. The survey takes on average 7 minutes to complete and any attorney in Maryland that practices in the circuit court is eligible. The purpose is to examine the rate of use and explore issues and concerns that attorneys say enhances or limits the use of mediation.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY: http://circuitcourtmediation.questionpro.com

This survey research is being overseen by the Maryland Judiciary’s Mediation and Conflict Resolution. The results will be disseminated by MACRO at the conclusion of the project and will be used to improve the use of mediation, when appropriate, in civil non-family cases.

Questions regarding the research can be directed to Brian Polkinghorn, Ph.D., Executive Director, Bosserman Center for Conflict Resolution at bdpolkinghorn@salisbury.edu.