BECOMING A MEMBER OF RAM IS ONE OF THE BEST DECISIONS YOU CAN MAKE FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
By joining you gain access to exclusive, money saving discounts on services and programs, legislative updates and advocacy as well as valuable educational opportunities. We aim to help you grow and protect your business, promote the retail industry and save your business money.
REMINDER: Paid Family and Medical Leave Contributions Due January 31, 2020
RAM members are reminded that initial contributions for the newly established MA Paid Family and Medical Leave program are due on January 31st. Collected contributions for the first quarter of the program are to be submitted through the Department of Revenue’s MassTaxConnect portal. Businesses will report contributions in Box 14 (Other) for Form W-2 and Box 16 (State tax withheld) for Form 1099-MISC. The contribution line for both items should read MAPFML.
Members are urged to visit the Department of Revenue’s PFML information page for ongoing updates and guidance materials. This includes a MassTaxConnect screenshot with further clarification on where to insert information on the W-2 and 1099-MISC, video tutorials on registering and reporting, and an extensive list of FAQs which are updated as information becomes available.
RAM members will receive 3% savings
on health insurance premiums
starting Jan. 1
Over the past three decades, RAM’s MA Retail Merchants Workers Compensation Group has saved our members $129 million in premium. To provide members a similar solution for the rising cost of health insurance, RAM has been hard at work establishing the RAM Health Insurance Cooperative (RAMHIC). Having secured a deeper upfront premium discount and expanded plan options, we are confident that our 2020 RAMHIC offering will help save you money on your health insurance.
We are pleased to announce that starting January 1, 2020 premium rates on all health insurance plans offered through RAMHIC will come with an upfront discount of 3% for both renewals and new participating members. This represents a projected annual average savings of nearly $3,000 per participating business.
Information from our carriers is being mailed to members next week. Click here to view full mailing.
Merged Market Advisory Council
Governor Charlie Baker in January appointed RAM President Jon Hurst and RAM Officer and member Wendy Hudson to the Merged Market Advisory Council. The 13 member Council is tasked to study and report back to the Governor by the end of April recommendations on what to do about unfair cross subsidies and other market disruptions affecting small business health insurance premiums. The Commissioner of Insurance Gary Anderson chairs the Council.
Why sales tax revenues are soaring
By taxing internet sales, retail fairness becomes a reality
FOR OVER TWO DECADES no retail organization across the country has been more engaged in Main Street taxation fairness than RAM. In fact, in 1997, the association was the first state or national retail association in the country to openly advocate for remote sales tax collections from internet sellers. Our concerns were based upon real life experiences of shifting consumer spending from our Massachusetts economy to north of the border due to the powerful incentive of sales tax avoidance. Indeed, we knew that untaxed internet sales would clearly represent two strikes against our Main Streets and our retail industry in the Commonwealth.
Gov. Baker Files $44.6B State Budget:
Proposes “Real Time” Sales Tax Collections & Lottery Sales on Debit Cards
On January 22nd, Gov. Charlie Baker filed his FY21 state budget proposal (H.2), a $44.6 billion spending plan that marks the first step in a long budget process that will play out in the Legislature over the next several months.
As we expected and for the fourth year in a row, the Governor’s budget includes a sales tax modernization proposal, making changes to the state’s sales tax collection and remittance process. The proposal this year is a return to “Real Time” or daily remittance, requiring third party processors of credit/debit transactions to remit to the Commonwealth, on a daily basis, the portion of a sale that is attributable to sales tax, with an effective date of July 1, 2023. Click here to continue reading this update.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
DCU center, Worcester MA
Please join the six New England Retail Associations as we bring Loss Prevention, Security, Risk Managers and Solutions Partners together with law enforcement, prosecutors and policy makers to learn more about how to keep our stores, employees, and customers safe and secure. There are many things to consider when protecting the profitability of a retail business. The New England Loss Prevention Expo strives to propagate an environment where learning, preparedness and networking arm us all with the tools to combat those crimes.
2020 Agenda ~ click here.
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