Last month, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released long-awaited guidance on matching contributions for qualified student loan payments under § 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code and other similar retirement plans. This guidance aims to help plan sponsors with setting up these programs for plan years beginning after December 31, 2024, until proposed regulations are issued.
Learn more and see other updates in this Weekly IRS Roundup.
On August 15, 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Announcement 2024-30, which provides a second Employee Retention Credit Voluntary Disclosure Program for employers to resolve erroneous claims. This program aims to help employers avoid civil litigation, penalties, and interest by settling their civil tax liabilities. It will run through November 22, 2024.
Read more about the new program and other IRS developments in our Weekly IRS Roundup here.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released a new revenue procedure that outlines how sponsors of defined benefit pension plans should request approval to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2025. The IRS also issued new proposed regulations that would increase penalties for employers that erroneously claimed employment tax credit refunds under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act; the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act; and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Check out this Weekly IRS Roundup here for more information.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced (see Revenue Procedure 2024-25) cost-of-living adjustments to the applicable dollar limits for health savings accounts (HSAs), high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) and excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) for 2025. All of the dollar limits currently in effect for 2024 will change for 2025, with the exception of one limit. The HSA catch-up contribution for individuals ages 55 and older will not change as it is not subject to cost-of-living adjustments.
In late December 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2024-2 (the Notice), providing guidance on key provisions of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0). SECURE 2.0, which was passed in December 2022, includes more than 90 provisions affecting US retirement plans, many of which are specifically aimed at enhancing savings opportunities for workers. The Notice provides guidance on many of the provisions of SECURE 2.0 in the form of questions and answers. This article covers the most significant provisions affecting 401(k) and 403(b) qualified retirement plans.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced plans to initiate dozens of new audits this spring in an attempt to ground high-flying taxpayers and their personal usage of corporate aircrafts. These audits will focus primarily on “highest risk” corporations and large partnerships, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel stated. Werfel added that audits of high-income earners will likely follow to “ensure that high-income groups are not flying under the radar.”
Under the SECURE Act and the SECURE 2.0 Act, employers must provide so-called long-term, part-time employees – i.e., those who complete at least 500 hours of service in three consecutive years (reduced to two years in 2025) and are at least 21 years old – the opportunity to make elective deferrals under their 401(k) plans and, beginning in 2025, their 403(b) plans.
Most employers with impacted plans reviewed their eligibility-tracking processes some time ago in anticipation of the initial effective date of the new rule. However, with that new rule now effective – and last-minute guidance now available – it is important for employers to review those processes to determine if further changes are needed or desired.
Under the SECURE Act and the SECURE 2.0 Act, employers must provide long-term, part-time employees the opportunity to make elective deferrals under their 401(k) plans and, beginning in 2025, their 403(b) plans. When this occurs, certain special rules apply to such employees that impact whether they must be included in annual nondiscrimination testing or receive required top-heavy vesting and benefits. As a result, it is important for employers to understand these requirements, as they may impact how annual testing is performed and the results.
Under the SECURE Act and the SECURE 2.0 Act, employers must provide long-term, part-time employees – i.e., employees who complete at least 500 hours of service in three consecutive years (reduced to two years in 2025) and are at least 21 years old – the opportunity to make elective deferrals under their 401(k) plans and, beginning in 2025, their 403(b) plans. However, long-term, part-time employees are not required to be eligible for employer matching or profit-sharing contributions until they satisfy the regular plan rules. Despite this fact, one of the most salient issues surrounding the implementation of the new rule is how it impacts – and complicates – tracking when employees become vested in such contributions.
Following the SECURE Act and the SECURE 2.0 Act, employers must now offer employees who work at least 500 hours within three (reduced to two beginning January 1, 2025) consecutive 12-month periods an opportunity to make elective deferrals to their 401(k) plans and, beginning in 2025, their 403(b) plans. This new long-term, part-time employee rule modifies rules that previously allowed employers to exclude employees from plan participation until the employees completed 1,000 hours of service in a single 12-month measurement period.
In doing so, the new rule has generated questions about whether all employers will now be required to track the actual hours all employees work to ensure compliance with this rule. The recently proposed regulations released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) confirm, in what should be a relief to many employers, that the answer is no. Employers do not need to change how they count periods of service toward plan eligibility. However, employers should revisit how such service is currently counted under their plans and consider the impact that may have on if and how the long-term, part-time employee rules apply.
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