Professional-services firms often accept money for very different purposes: earned fees, advance retainers, reimbursable expenses, insurance premiums, deposits, and client funds. Treating all of those payments as ordinary operating revenue can create bookkeeping, trust-account, ethical, regulatory, or reconciliation problems. For insurance agencies, attorneys, accountants, consultants, financial firms, brokers, and other...
Why Connecticut Merchants Can’t Surcharge — and What a Compliant Cash Discount Must Look Like Under §42-133ff
Connecticut merchants cannot assume that a card surcharge program permitted elsewhere is lawful here. The key compliance question is whether the merchant is adding a fee because the customer chose a particular payment method or offering a genuine reduction from pricing that was clearly disclosed before payment. That distinction is...