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11/15/2024 -
Guidance on Distributions for Emergency Personal Expense and Domestic Abuse Victims, ML BeneBits
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released a notice providing guidance on distributions for emergency personal expense and domestic abuse victims under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0). Both distributions are optional, allow self certification as to eligibility, and may be repaid within three years.
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08/08/2024 -
Retirement Plans: Bona Fide Job-Based Exclusion or Impermissible Service Condition?, ML BeneBits
Employers utilizing class-based criteria to exclude employees from retirement plan participation face new issues and considerations following the adoption of the long-term part-time employee (LTPTE) rules in SECURE 1.0 and SECURE 2.0. Employers who have not done so already may want to evaluate their plan's eligibility rules to determine whether any updates or clarifications may be desirable.
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06/17/2024 -
SECURE Act 2.0: DOL and IRS Issue Coordinated Guidance on PLESAs
The US Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service have issued coordinated guidance on the pension-linked emergency savings account (PLESA), a new in-plan emergency savings account feature created by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. While in theory plan sponsors could adopt PLESAs as early as the first day of the plan year beginning after December 31, 2023, PLESAs present a number of administrative challenges, and SECURE 2.0 left unanswered questions that have caused many to hesitate to adopt.
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05/31/2024 -
SECURE Act 2.0: IRS Issues Fact Sheet on Disaster Relief Distributions and Plan Loans
The IRS recently issued a set of Frequently Asked Questions in Fact Sheet 2024-19, which address the special rules for distributions and plan loans for certain individuals impacted by major federally declared disasters under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. Though not breaking much new ground, the fact sheet provides clear and helpful guidance to plan sponsors choosing to extend all or some of the distribution and/or loan relief to their employees in the wake of disasters.
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05/21/2024 -
IRS Extends Post-Death RMD Relief Under the 10-Year Rule for 2024 Distributions, ML BeneBits
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently extended relief with respect to certain post-death required minimum distributions (RMDs) under Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(9).
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03/14/2024 -
Dealing with the Dearly Departed in Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plans, ML BeneBits
Recent headlines involving the Central States Teamsters Pension Fund and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program highlights an issue with meaningful consequences for multiemployer defined benefit plans—unreported deceased participants. In fact, PBGC’s alleged overpayment of $127 million under the American Rescue Plan Act’s SFA Program covering an estimated 3,500 deceased participants sparked PBGC to implement specific death certification measures for future applicants to the SFA Program.
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02/28/2024 -
IRS Provides Guidance on Hodgepodge of Secure 2.0 Provisions
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released a notice providing guidance on various provisions of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0). Some of the topics touched on in the guidance include automatic enrollment, the “Rothification” of employer contributions, de minimis financial incentives, amendment deadlines, and other provisions as described in more detail below.
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02/02/2024 -
IRS Proposes Long-Term, Part-Time Employee Regulations
On November 24, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed long-awaited regulations providing guidance on the required coverage of long-term, part-time employees (LTPTEs) under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE 1.0) and the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0). This first piece of guidance to squarely address the LTPTE provisions arrived just weeks before the January 1, 2024 required LTPTE entry date under SECURE 1.0.
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09/29/2023 -
Student Loan Repayments to Resume: SECURE 2.0 Student Loan Matching Contributions to the Rescue?, ML BeneBits
With the expiration of COVID-19 pandemic relief suspending loan payments and interest accruals on federal student loans (interest accruals resumed September 1 and loan payments are set to resume in October), now is a good time for employers to take a closer look at the student loan matching contribution feature of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0).
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08/31/2023 -
IRS Warns of Compliance Actions Related to ESOPs and High-Income Taxpayers, ML BeneBits
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued IR-2023-144 (the Notice), warning stakeholders of compliance issues associated with employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) related to the tax liability of high-income taxpayers. Although it is unclear what prompted the Notice, the IRS’s intent is clear—it has a new enforcement focus on ESOP-related tax avoidance, particularly with respect to S corporation ESOPs.
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08/25/2023 -
IRS Issues Welcome—and Temporary—Relief from Rothification of Catch-Up Requirements, ML BeneBits
To the great relief of many plan sponsors, administrators, recordkeepers, and payroll vendors, the IRS issued highly anticipated relief regarding the mandatory "Rothification" of catch-up contributions.
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06/21/2023 -
Transitioning to Post SECURE 2.0 Pension Overpayment Recovery Practices, ML BeneBits
As we have previously discussed, the SECURE Act 2.0 of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) changed the game for plan sponsors when considering whether and how to recover retirement plan overpayments. The new rules provide welcome relief and much-needed flexibility for many plan sponsors and fiduciaries who felt compelled to attempt to recover many types of overpayments or make the plan whole, even where such recovery or restoration did not materially impact plan funding.
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06/02/2023 -
New IRS Q&A Regarding EPCRS Expansion Answers Some – But Not All – Questions, ML BeneBits
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2023-43 (Notice) on May 25, which provided guidance regarding the expansion of the IRS’s Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) mandated by Section 305 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0).
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05/31/2023 -
Secure Act 2.0: Analysis of Expanded Matching Contribution and Emergency Savings Account Provisions
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) makes far-ranging changes to the US employer–retirement plan system intended to expand access to retirement plans and encourage savings by US workers. This LawFlash more closely examines SECURE 2.0’s provisions aimed to increase retirement savings by promoting new ways for employees to receive matching contributions.
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05/23/2023 -
IRA Providers: SECURE Act 2.0 Expands EPCRS to Correct Inadvertent IRA Errors, ML BeneBits
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) made a number of changes in law intended to simplify the administration of retirement plans, including through the expansion of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS), which is currently set forth in Revenue Procedure 2021-30. EPCRS furthers the goal of ensuring that tax-qualified retirement plans operate in compliance with the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code), by providing a mechanism for sponsors and administrators of those plans to correct certain documentary and operational errors that may arise in plan administration.
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02/15/2023 -
SECURE 2.0: Challenges for Taft-Hartley Multiemployer 401(k) Plan Administration, ML BeneBits
The SECURE Act 2.0 makes changes to the US employer retirement plan system with respect to both single employer plans and to “applicable collectively bargained plans.” Applicable collectively bargained plans are defined in the statute as plans maintained pursuant to one or more collective bargaining agreements between employee representatives and one or more employers, i.e., multiemployer plans.
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02/01/2023 -
SECURE Act 2.0: Impact on ESOPs, ML BeneBits
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE Act 2.0) makes far-reaching changes to the US retirement plan system. Our initial SECURE Act 2.0 LawFlash provided a general overview of its significant provisions. This blog post—one in our series of coverage on SECURE Act 2.0—focuses on provisions unique to employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).
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01/18/2023 -
SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022: Enhanced Retirement Plan Participation Provisions
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 makes far-ranging changes to the US employer-retirement plan system. This LawFlash—one in a series—more closely examines the act’s provisions that expand and encourage retirement plan participation.
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01/10/2023 -
SECURE Act 2.0: Expanded Self-Correction and New Overpayment Correction Rules and Relief
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 makes far-ranging changes to the US employer-retirement plan system intended to expand access to retirement plans and encourage savings by US workers. This LawFlash—one in a series—examines provisions regarding expanded self-correction and new overpayment correction rules and relief.
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01/05/2023 -
SECURE Act 2.0 Catches Up to Roth
Signed into law at the very end of 2022, the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE Act 2.0) makes far-ranging changes to the US employer-retirement plan system. Continuing momentum and themes from earlier legislation (notably, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Act of 2019 (SECURE 1.0)), SECURE Act 2.0 makes changes that are intended to expand access to retirement plans and encourage savings by US workers.
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12/27/2022 -
SECURE Act 2.0: Congress Delivers Retirement Plan Legislation and Holiday Cheer as Part of Year-End Spending Bill
After months of on-again off-again consideration of competing bills, US Congress capitalized on bipartisan support for retirement plan legislation to deliver the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE Act 2.0) as part of the year-end omnibus spending bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (the CAA).