On June 20, 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released Notice 2024-55 (the “Notice”) offering guidance on two (2) new types of distributions exempt from the 10% early withdrawal penalty: emergency personal expense distributions and domestic abuse victim distributions.
Introduced by the SECURE 2.0 Act (“SECURE 2.0”), both types of distributions are optional and may
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Back to 1975: New Delays to the DOL’s Investment Fiduciary Advice Rule
By Lori Basilico & Aaron Weiss
Two Texas federal court decisions have stalled the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) “investment advice fiduciary rule” under Section 3(21) of the Employee Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (the “Fiduciary Rule”) from its September 23, 2024 effective date (see our previous alert).
On July 25, 2024, in Federation of Americans for Consumer…
UPDATE – Form 5330 E-Filing Requirement Headache Relieved for 2024
In a blog post dated May 10, 2024, we discussed the Form 5330, an excise tax return used by certain employers and individuals to pay penalty taxes with respect to employee benefit plans, must be filed electronically for taxable years ending on or after December 31, 2023 if the filer is required to file at…
Form 5330 E-Filing Requirement Headache
The Form 5330[1], an excise tax return used by certain employers and individuals to pay penalty taxes, must be filed electronically for taxable years ending on or after December 31, 2023. As described below, this may create issues for sponsors of qualified retirement plans.
Last year, the Department of the Treasury published final…
Final Rule Issued by OCR and CMS for Nondiscrimination Protections Under Section 1557 of the ACA
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a final rule on April 26, 2024 (the “Final Rule”) under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) after reviewing more than 85,000 comments from the public following the Proposed…
The DOL’s Final Investment Advice Fiduciary Rule Is Here
By Lori Basilico & Aaron Weiss
In its latest attempt in a fourteen-year old quest to update the circa-1975 definition of a fiduciary who renders “investment advice for a fee or other compensation, direct or indirect” (an “investment advice fiduciary”) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), on April 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor…
IRS Issues Guidance on Secure 2.0 – What Plan Sponsors Need to Know
By Lori Basilico & Aaron Weiss
In late December 2023, approximately one year after Congress enacted the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”), the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) released Notice 2024-2 (the “Notice”) providing much needed guidance, in the form of questions and answers, on 12 of the 90 new provisions added by SECURE…
IRS Announces 2024 Retirement Plan Limits: Modest Increases
The Internal Revenue Service announced the 2024 cost-of-living adjustments to the dollar limitations for qualified retirement plans and other benefits, and the Social Security Administration announced its own cost-of-living adjustments for 2024. Most of the dollar limits, including the elective deferral contribution limit for 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans, the annual compensation limit under 401(a)(17)…
SECURE 2.0: Two-Year Transition Relief Announced for Roth Catch-Up Contributions
Long-awaited guidance was received from the IRS on Friday related to the SECURE 2.0 requirement that catch-up contributions for high-income participants in 401(k), 403(b), and governmental 457(b) plans be made as Roth contributions. Notice 2023-62 provides for a 2-year administrative transition period that will be welcome relief to retirement plan sponsors and record keepers alike.…
IRS Proposes Regulations on Using Forfeitures in Qualified Retirement Plans
By Lori Basilico & Aaron Weiss
Introduction
On February 27, 2023, the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) relating to forfeitures in tax-qualified defined benefit and defined contribution plans. Forfeitures generally arise when a participant terminates employment before completing the required service for full vesting of employer contributions under the terms…