Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), applicable large employers (ALEs) — i.e., those with, on average, fifty (50) or more full-time or full-time-equivalent employees in the preceding year — must offer in the following year affordable, minimum value group health plan coverage to their full-time employees and those employees’ dependents or risk imposition of
SECURE 2.0 Series Part 6: Changes to Retirement Plan Notice Requirements
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) eliminates the requirement for plan sponsors to provide certain notices to eligible but unenrolled employees in defined contribution plans, changes the delivery method plan sponsors must use to furnish benefit statements to participants in retirement plans, and modifies the language required in annual funding notices under defined
Self-Insured Health Plans: August 1st PCORI Fee Due Date is Rapidly Approaching
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (“PCORI”) is an independent nonprofit research organization that funds comparative clinical research, among other things. PCORI is funded through annual fees — provided for in the Affordable Care Act — paid by insurers of fully-insured health plans and sponsors of self-insured health plans, including health reimbursement arrangements (“HRAs”) that are
It’s Almost the End of 2021. Do You Know Where Your Healthcare Dollars Go?
The CAA Transparency Rules Will Let Plans and Participants Know. The Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the IRS (collectively the Departments) recently released the Interim Final Rules with a request for Comment (IFC), Prescription Drug and Health Care Spending. These rules implement Section 204, Title II, another phase of the transparency provisions
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021: Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 generally provides the annual funding for the federal government and also contains several important rules giving further COVID-19 relief. The comprehensive relief package funds certain hard-hit industries, expands eligibility for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and extends and expands the Employee Retention Tax Credit.
The Act also relaxes several normally
When to Amend: Deadline for Compliance with Hardship Distribution Regulations Clarified
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 liberalized the hardship distribution rules applicable to 401(k) and 403(b) plans. On September 23, 2019, the IRS issued final regulations — which we discussed in a previous blog — implementing the new hardship distribution rules. While some of the new
To Withhold or Not to Withhold on Pension Distributions: A New Proposed Regulation Clarifies Obligations
On May 31, the IRS issued a proposed regulation — presented in Q & A format — concerning income tax withholding obligations on non-rollover distributions from employer-sponsored plans — including pension, annuity, profit sharing, stock bonus and any other deferred compensation plan — to destinations outside the U.S. Unlike U.S. payees, non-U.S. payees cannot elect
Notice 2018-76: Taking a Bite Out of the Business Expense Deductions for Meals, Entertainment
On October 3, 2018, the IRS issued transitional guidance in Notice 2018-76 concerning the business expense deductions for meals and entertainment following the changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) — which generally disallowed a deduction for expenses related to entertainment, amusement or recreation, but did not specifically address the deductibility of
Financial Conflict of Interest in the Eighth Circuit: Trigger of a Less Deferential Standard of Review or Mere Factor in Determining Plan Administrator Abuse of Discretion?
It is well-established under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) that when an employee benefit plan grants the plan administrator discretion to decide questions of eligibility for benefits or to construe plan terms, judicial review of the plan administrator’s denial of benefits is generally limited to the deferential abuse of discretion standard
2018 Tax Reform Series: Goodbye to the Individual Mandate
This is the seventh article in our series covering various tax and employee benefits-related changes contained in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by the President on December 22, 2017.
Once significant change made by the Act, summarized below, is the elimination of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, effective 2019.
Background
Long an