Similar to the relief granted in 2020, the IRS has again announced special filing and payment relief deadlines for individuals in response to COVID-19 through Notice 2021-21. The Notice postpones the Federal income tax return and payment due dates from April 15, 2021 to May 17, 2021. The IRS guidance also affects the world of benefit plans, and ...
One year ago today, you couldn’t have found a face mask in my house. Today, we have an entire drawer in our kitchen dedicated to masks. And while the amount I have spent on gas and entertainment is down considerably year over year, I have spent my fair share on Etsy and other sites on superhero masks for my 5 and 7 year old (whatever it takes to get them to ...
The American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) will affect benefit plans in multiple ways. In addition to the COBRA subsidy (discussed here), employers with a qualified dependent care assistance program (“DCAP”) now have the ability to increase the DCAP flexible spending limit. Employers interested in providing this benefit to employees ...
Earlier today, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”). The bill will now go to President Biden for signature. Under ARPA, eligible COBRA enrollees will be able to receive a 100% subsidy for their COBRA premiums. The subsidy will be provided by the federal government via payroll tax credits for employers. The House had ...
As part of the release of the 2021 annual adjustment to the civil monetary penalties, the DOL has provided benefit plans with the ever important reminder of the severity of the penalties that can be assessed for failing to file Form 5500. Effective for penalties assessed after January 15, 2021, the DOL per day penalty for failure to properly file an ...
Last Spring, the DOL and IRS issued a Joint Rule that extended a number of participant deadlines under COBRA, HIPAA and ERISA. Under the Joint Rule, plan sponsors had to extend any of deadline that occurred on or after March 1, 2020 until the 60 days following the end of the National Emergency (referred to as the “Outbreak Period”). However ...
Last month, we wrote a post on the relief items for FSA participants added by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (“CAA”). The CAA provides a number of relief items for plan participants that employers may choose to implement for their health FSA and dependent care FSA plans. This relief includes the ability for an employer to offer an ...
In our recent post, we discussed the EEOC’s newest proposed wellness program rules under the ADA and GINA. As of this week, those proposed rules have been formally withdrawn by the EEOC. The proposed rules were posted unofficially on the EEOC’s website but were not published in the Federal Register before President Biden took office.
As part of ...
Recently, the EEOC finally released their proposed wellness regulations. These regulations replace regulations that were released in 2016 but were withdrawn by the EEOC in 2019 due to court challenges and confusion. These new proposed regulations address wellness programs under both the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the ...
Guidance provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (the “Act”) will temporarily help employers determine if their retirement plans have experienced a “partial termination.” We discussed partial terminations in our recent blog post, and the Act supplements all prior guidance with a bright-line rule for determining when ...