The IRS has extended the deadlines for plan sponsors to adopt certain retirement plans as a result of the Coronavirus emergency.
403(b) Plans
In 2013, The IRS initiated a 403(b) program that allows eligible employers to amend or restate their plans retroactively. Plan sponsors could correct defects in their written plan document going back as far ...
Employers want to attract and retain the best talent available. Employers today are cognizant that employees entering the workforce are burdened by mounting student loan debt, and many employers have explored the benefit options available to provide student loan debt relief for their employees. This issue has been percolating for some time
Almost all employers that sponsor a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account Plan (DC FSA) provide for a run-out period in the plan. A run-out period is the period of time in the following plan year that DC FSA participants can submit reimbursements for expenses incurred in the prior year. Most DC FSA plans run on a calendar year and a very common ...
Earlier today, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act was passed by the House. Having already passed the Senate, the CARES Act will now go the President, who has stated he will sign it as soon as possible. The Act is far reaching for nearly every aspect of American life and business. This post focuses on the portion of ...
Earlier today, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act was enacted into law when it was signed by the President. The Act is far reaching for nearly every aspect of American life and business. This post focuses on Sections 2202 and 2203 of the Act which provide relief for participants and plan sponsors of defined ...
The IRS announced special filing and payment relief in response to COVID-19 through Notice 2020-18 that postpones Federal income tax return and payment due dates from April 15, 2020 until July 15, 2020. The IRS recently provided more guidance on this issue in the form of FAQs, and the guidance addresses the following topics related to benefit plans:
Many of us now find ourselves working from our home offices, the kitchen table or maybe even sitting in our cars in the garage to have quiet on a conference call while our kids, spouses, and/or pets are running around the house. Our new normal for the next several weeks is anything but normal for many employers and employees. I have yet to talk to a client ...
The Ohio Department of Health today ordered health insurers to provide leeway to employers and employees to help meet the challenges of the coronavirus with regard to coverage and premium payments. The Order was made pursuant to Governor DeWine’s emergency declaration of March 9, 2020 and will remain in effect until the end of the emergency.
If you have fewer than 500 employees and provide health insurance, you need to read this post. This impacts even those small employers who are not otherwise subject to the FMLA. These new changes apply to all employers with fewer than 500 employees. This means even those companies that have fewer than 50 employees must comply with these new ...
As discussed in our other coronavirus related blog posts, new legislation intended to ease the economic consequences stemming from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak by expanding FMLA and sick leave available to employees and providing tax credits to employers providing the leave has been passed. The legislation also ...
While leave-sharing programs are common in the public sector, many private sector employers have not yet embraced these programs. For many, the tax issues involved with such a program are more trouble than they are worth. In an attempt to find a silver-lining to the current health situation, this post examines how the current national emergency ...
The coronavirus pandemic has already caused financial strain on Americans, and many are predicting this effect to continue. We have received questions from plan sponsors and have been contemplating how they should respond to plan participants when they request a withdrawal from their retirement account. Although options do exist, they are ...
We are in a time where everything is changing and changing quickly. If you would have told me a week ago that my children would be off school indefinitely, my husband and I would be working remotely and all our restaurants and bars would be closed to dining, I would have said you were crazy. Yet that is the situation that we are waking up to today. As a result ...
On March 11, 2020, the IRS issued Notice 2020-15 which announced that high deductible health plans (“HDHP”) may offer testing and treatment for COVID-19 without co-pays or deductibles. Plan sponsors are not required to offer these services without cost-sharing but are permitted to do so if they choose.
Notice 2020-15 provides that an HDHP ...
In 2018, the IRS began assessing employer shared responsibility penalties on large employers that failed to offer substantially all of their full-time employees minimum essential coverage. It also began issuing penalties to those large employers that failed to offer affordable, minimum value coverage to employees who then enrolled in ...