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Reminder: New Tax Forms for Retirement Plan Payment Withholding Effective January 1, 2023

Retirement plan sponsors need to utilize updated Form W-4P (for periodic pension and annuity payments) and new Form W-4R (for nonperiodic payments and eligible rollover distributions) for income tax withholding elections beginning January 1, 2023. As we near the end of 2022, plan sponsors should ensure that their retirement plan systems and vendors are on track to implement the new federal tax withholding election forms no later than January 1, 2023.

As background, in 2017, changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) required the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to revise the withholding tables and develop new forms to use to withhold taxes from periodic payments. These forms are used by qualified and non-qualified retirement plans for participants to request withholding on benefit payments that commence in 2023 or later. In 2021, the IRS revised the Form W-4P into the two forms noted above: revised Form W-4P, which is now used only to request withholding on periodic pension and annuity payments, and new Form W-4R, which is used to request additional withholding on nonperiodic payments and eligible rollover distributions. The US Department of the Treasury and the IRS received numerous questions on the new forms, which caused the IRS to delay the implementation until January 1, 2023.

Recipients of periodic retirement payments can give payers a Form W-4P to make or change a withholding election or to elect not to have withholding apply. A Form W-4P stays in effect until the payment recipient changes or revokes it. Form W-4R is required for all nonperiodic retirement payments, such as a lump sum payment, if the recipient wants to increase or decrease withholding from the applicable default withholding percentage.

The revised Form W-4P has a few changes. The significant changes include updates to the marital category, modifications to the reporting of other sources of income, replacement of allowances with dependent credits and addition of a calculation to report a new withholding amount. The new Form W-4R allows a payee to choose a different rate of withholding by entering a rate between 0% and 100%. However, if no amount is selected, plan sponsors must withhold at a flat 10% rate (or 20% if eligible) from nonperiodic payments.

For more information on these tax and employment benefits issues, please contact your McDermott lawyer or the authors listed below.

Marchan Clark, a law clerk in the Washington, DC, office, also contributed to this article.

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Treasury/IRS Release Proposed Regulations on Section 4960 Excise Tax

The US Department of the Treasury has released long-expected proposed regulations regarding the section 4960 excise tax on certain remuneration or separation amounts paid to the five highest paid employees of a tax-exempt organization. The new proposed regulations continue the tough approach previously taken on section 4960 issues, while also providing some new exceptions and important clarifications.

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Fifth Circuit Issues ACA Ruling, But Severability Question Remains

A decision in Texas v. United States was issued by a divided three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on December 18, 2019. This case presented once again the question whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is constitutional and sustainable, and questions of severability remain for the near future.

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Top Takeaways for Tax-Exempts from IRS Guidance on Executive Compensation

One of the more controversial and complex provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been the 21 percent excise tax on certain nonprofit executive compensation. On December 31, 2018, the IRS issued interim guidance that addresses how this tax will apply in various situations that commonly arise for tax-exempt employers. Establishing internal systems to comply with this guidance will be challenging.

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What Employers Need to Know About 162(m)

Andrew Liazos presented on 162(m) deduction limitations and transition rules at NYU’s 77th Institute on Federal Taxation. Amongst other topics, he discussed key changes for employers under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the guidance provided under Notice 2018-68 and the potential impact of such changes on incentive compensation practices.

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Free Parking Only Exists in Monopoly: New IRS Guidance Makes Employer-Provided Parking More Costly and Burdensome Than You Think

As part of its comprehensive 2017 tax reform bill, Congress repealed deductions for Qualified Transportation Fringes including for employer-provided parking, while also requiring that tax-exempt organizations increase their unrelated business taxable income by the nondeductible parking expenses. Recently released IRS Notice 2018-99 addresses some of the year-end tax filing and tax planning concerns for affected employers with rules of special interest to tax-exempt employers.

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New Proposed Regulations Provide Helpful Guidance on Hardship Distribution Changes

The IRS recently issued proposed amendments to regulations concerning 401(k) plan hardship distributions. The proposed regulations address changes to hardship distribution rules from the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and other legislation.

Though the regulations are only proposed, 401(k) plan sponsors should promptly consider these changes because decisions should be made on applying certain optional changes, which generally can be effective for plan years beginning after December 31, 2018.

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IRS Issues Long-Awaited Initial Guidance under Section 162(m)

On August 21, 2018, the IRS issued guidance regarding recent statutory changes made to Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code. Overall, Notice 2018-68 strictly interprets the Section 162(m) grandfathering rule under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Public companies and other issuers subject to these deduction limitations will want to closely consider this guidance in connection with filing upcoming periodic reports with securities regulators. Further action to support existing tax positions or adjustments to deferred tax asset reporting in financial statements may be warranted in light of this guidance.

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Exec Retirement Vehicle Seen as a Potential Gamble for Employers

Andrew Liazos said that it makes sense for companies to consider Q-SERPs in response to the end of the performance-based pay deduction, but he questioned whether the plans would offer much “bang for your buck.” “You first have to deal with the obvious time and effort you have to spend to show it’s not discriminatory, and then take a certain level of risk that the rules aren’t going to change,” he said.

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Originally published in Tax Notes Today, July 2018.




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