Human Trafficking Lawsuits + Hiring Seasonal Workers + Keep Employees Safe + Lodging Tax Report + Tax Credits

Hotels have recently faced a flood of human trafficking related lawsuits. In these lawsuits, human trafficking victims and their families are alleging negligence and violations of state and federal human trafficking laws against hotels. Several human trafficking lawsuits against hotels have alleged violations of the Trafficking Victim Protection Reauthorization Act.

Pursuant to the TVPRA, victims and their families can file lawsuits against not only overt facilitators of their injuries but any entity, like a hotel, that knew or should have known it was doing business with a trafficker. TVPRA plaintiffs, if successful, can recover actual damages, punitive damages and reasonable attorneys’ fees. To mitigate the damages from TVPRA and other human trafficking claims, hotels are looking to their commercial general liability policies for insurance coverage. Whether CGL policies provide coverage for human trafficking claims is a relatively new question that has become the subject of judicial discourse. In particular, several courts have focused in on whether an assault and battery exclusion precludes GCL coverage for these types of claims.

Understanding tax credit eligibility can feel overwhelming and confusing, especially for businesses that are in the hospitality industry. More often than not, day-to-day operations are time-consuming and take precedence over everything else. In addition, the industry was (and continues to be) the hardest hit by COVID-19, which is why there has never been a more critical time for hotels and other hospitality business owners to determine which tax credits they are eligible to receive—the potential benefit is too great to pass up.

So which tax credits are we referring to, and how can your business determine eligibility? Here we break down three key tax credits for the hospitality industry: