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YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Have a personnel-related or business tax question? Members can get free information from CBIA’s experts. The phone number is 860-244-1900.

Q: We have an employee who was injured on the job and has been out for several days now. How do his workers’ compensation benefits for lost time work? Does he receive benefits from day one?

A: If an employee is injured on the job, the employer pays full wages for the day of the injury, whether or not the employee returns to work that day after seeking medical treatment. After the day of injury, benefits are paid as follows:

First through third day: There is a three-day waiting period, so no workers’ comp benefits are paid for temporary total disability or temporary partial disability until the injured employee is incapacitated from work for more than three calendar days.

Fourth through sixth day: Benefits begin on the fourth day of incapacity from work and are paid for each of these days.

Seventh day on: If the employee remains incapacitated for seven or more calendar days, the three-day waiting period is eliminated; benefits are paid from the seventh day on and are also paid retroactively for the three-day waiting period.

If an employee is not out long enough to be eligible for retroactive payment of days one through three, some employers will pay for that time, although they’re not required to, and most will let an employee use paid sick or vacation time for those days.

Note that when counting days of incapacity, you must count all calendar days, even if the employee was not scheduled to work during any of them.

Q: Our company has more than five employees in total. However, they are rarely, if ever, all working at the same time at the same location. Does the new state law banning smoking in companies with five or more em-ployees apply to us?

A: Although that circumstance is not specifically addressed in the text of the law, it appears that the ban would apply to any company employing five or more employees, regardless of how many are at work at any one time. The law specifies that “[e]ach employer with five or more employees shall prohibit smoking in any business facility under said employer’s control … .” “Business facility” is defined as a “structurally enclosed location or portion thereof at which employees perform services for their employer.”

By way of contrast, the state law that prohibits requiring employees to work seven and one-half or more hours without at least a 30-minute meal break specifically describes the circumstances when an employer is exempt from that provision: “… employers that have fewer than five employees on a shift at a single place of business provided the exemption shall only apply to the employees on such shift.”

The absence of any reference to such an exemption in the smoking law is a strong indication that no such exemption would be available, and that any employer with five or more employees on its payroll would be required to enforce the smoking ban at work, even though there are generally fewer than five employees present at any one time.

Q: My business buys and sells used computer software. Do we still have to collect sales and use tax?

A: Yes. Your business should obtain a Connecticut sales and use tax permit and collect tax. However, you may accept a customer’s trade-in of an item toward the purchase of another piece of software you are selling without incurring tax liability. The Department of Revenue Services (DRS) allows the value of trade-ins of all like-kind items to be exempt from sales and use taxes. For example, a customer could trade in some older software worth $50 in exchange for newer software you are selling in your store worth $100. You would only have to collect tax on the $50 actually paid for the newer software. The same is true for a sporting-goods business that allows trade-ins of old golf clubs or skis toward the purchase of new ones. For more information, see the DRS’ Special Notice 98(8), available on the agency’s Web site or by calling the DRS at 1-800-382-9463.