On August 25, 2023, the IRS announced a two-year delay for the Roth catch-up contribution requirement for employees making $145,000 or more in the prior calendar year that would have applied in 2024. The Roth catch-up contribution requirement will now be effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025. (For an overview of SECURE 2.0 for defined contribution plan sponsors, click here.)
Author: Mona Ghude
Mona Ghude helps corporate and private employers craft and administer benefits on behalf of diverse employee groups that make up today’s workforce. She advises on creating fair and financially sound defined contribution, defined benefit and equity-based plans and provides counsel on plan asset rules, deferred compensation and employee classification issues. Mona also provides counsel on the risks and value of benefit plans in corporate transactions and represents high-level executives in negotiating employment, change-of-control and severance agreements.
Final Changes Announced to Forms 5500 and 5500-SF
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it has finalized, together with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), the third and final round of revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and the 5500-SF Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan.
These Phase III revisions implement certain elements of a September 2021 regulatory proposal, which included proposed changes to annual reporting requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Some of the changes relate to the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enforcement Act (SECURE Act), including items affecting multiple-employer plans (MEPs) and defined contribution group reporting arrangements. As such, the changes mostly impact retirement plans. Phase III revisions are effective for plan years beginning January 1, 2023, with filing beginning in July 2024. The previous Phases I and II adopted changes for plan years 2021 and 2022, respectively.
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IRS Announces 2023 Retirement Plan Limits
The IRS recently announced the 2023 cost-of-living adjustments to various benefit and contribution limits applicable to retirement plans. The IRS significantly increased the applicable limits for 2023 due to the high rate of inflation in 2022. The following limits apply to retirement plans in 2023:
- The limit on elective deferrals under 401(k), 403(b), and eligible 457(b) plans increased to $22,500.
- The limit on additional catch-up contributions by participants age 50 or older increased to $7,500. This means that the maximum amount of elective deferral contributions for those participants in 2023 is $30,000.
- The Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) Section 415 annual addition limit is increased to $66,000 for 401(k) and other defined contribution plans, and the annual benefit limit is increased to $265,000 for defined benefit plans.
- The limit on the annual compensation that can be taken into account by qualified plans under Code Section 417 is increased to $330,000.
- The dollar- level threshold for becoming a highly compensated employee under Code Section 414(q) increased to $150,000 (which, based on the look-back rule, is applicable for HCE determinations in 2024 based on compensation in 2023).
- The dollar- level threshold for becoming a “key employee” in a top-heavy plan under Code Section 416(i)(1) is increased to $215,000.
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IRS Relaxes Plan Amendment Deadlines for Changes Under the SECURE Act and Other Laws
The Internal Revenue Service recently granted plan sponsors additional time to amend retirement plans to reflect changes in law under: (i) Section 2203 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act); (ii) the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act); and (iii) Section 104 of the Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 (Miners Act).
Sponsors of qualified plans and non-governmental Section 403(b) plans (including collectively bargained plans) now have until December 31, 2025, to adopt certain plan amendments required by these recent changes in law or to conform the written plan to operational changes permitted by these laws.
Part One of Surprise Medical Billing Regulatory Guidance Outlines Specific Required Changes to Group Health Plan Payment Calculations
The No Surprises Act (the “NSA”), which was signed into law at the end of 2020 as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, is designed to protect consumers from unexpected medical bills. The NSA generally applies to group health plans, healthcare providers, and health insurance issuers. The NSA is expected to have significant and far-reaching impacts on the health industry, so it is imperative that group health plan sponsors take steps to implement regulatory guidance on the NSA as it is issued.
IRS Clarifies Pandemic-Related Relief for Dependent Care FSAs
As noted in our prior blog posts here and here, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (the “Act”) includes several types of relief for flexible spending accounts (“FSAs”), impacting both health and dependent care FSAs. In February, the IRS issued Notice 2021-15 (the “Notice”), which provides clarifying guidance with respect to the Act’s FSA relief provisions and answers many of the outstanding questions posed by employers following the Act’s passage. Our prior blog post answers common questions about how the guidance applies to health FSA benefits. Below we describe the key changes in the Act and the Notice (together, the “Relief”) specific to dependent care FSAs.
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IRS Issues Guidance on Missing Participants and State Unclaimed Property Funds
In October 2020, the IRS issued two pieces of guidance addressing (1) the tax withholding and reporting of distributions from qualified retirement plans to state unclaimed property funds, and (2) the ability of taxpayers to roll over funds that were previously escheated to a state unclaimed property fund.
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Rehiring Employees by End of 2020 Could Prevent Partial Plan Terminations
In our May 2020 client alert, we addressed the possibility that COVID-19 layoffs could inadvertently cause a partial termination of a company’s qualified retirement plan. Recently issued IRS guidance provides that if participating employees whose employment was terminated due to COVID-19 are rehired by the end of 2020, the IRS generally will not deem a partial plan termination to have occurred. However, rehiring employees by the end of 2020 will not guarantee that employers will avoid a partial plan termination.
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CARES Act Brings Much-Needed Relief (and New Obligations) for Benefit Plans
As people across the country react to the quickly changing COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed another piece of legislation providing guidance and relief on a variety of issues — the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law on March 27, 2020. This article includes brief summaries of what employers should know about key benefits-related components of the CARES Act. Plan sponsors should review their plans to assess the impact of these changes and take appropriate steps to implement the changes (some of which are required).
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Traps for the Unwary: Is your Company’s Severance Arrangement Subject to ERISA?
Severance arrangements generally provide for cash payments to an employee whose employment is involuntarily terminated and may include certain benefits, such as subsidized medical coverage and outplacement assistance.
Severance arrangements take a variety of forms. Formal severance plans often are used as a retention tool for employees across the board with no individual negotiations. In our experience, companies with formal severance plans typically treat them as ERISA plans.
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