California: Joining Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Utah and Washington, the California Labor Commissioner has signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Labor to jointly focus on misclassification of employees as independent contractors.

Arizona: The Arizona House Ways and Means Committee recently approved legislation to limit to three years the ability of the state Department of Revenue to audit a state income tax return. Arizona’s current limit is four years.

Connecticut: Two recent decisions show the high-risk gamble contractors face by not using compliant customer contracts. In both cases, the contractor failed to follow the Connecticut home improvement regulations regarding customer disclosures. However, despite committing the same error, one court ruled it a technical error and allowed the contractor to seek his money; the other, relying strictly on Connecticut’s home improvement regulations that state that “No home improvement contract shall be valid or enforceable against an owner unless…”, ruled that the contract was void.