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,...more
The IRS has long permitted sponsors of individually designed pension and 401(k) retirement plans qualified under Section 401(a) of the Code to obtain a favorable determination letter on the status of their tax-qualified...more
Earlier this year, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued proposed regulations on the use of forfeitures by tax-qualified retirement plans. The changes, published in the Federal Register,...more
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...more
12/14/2022
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Income Taxes ,
IRA Rollovers ,
IRS ,
Retirement Plan ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Forms ,
W-4 ,
Withholding Requirements ,
Withholding Tax
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration announced the cost-of-living adjustments to the applicable dollar limits on various employer-sponsored retirement and welfare plans and the Social...more
10/21/2022
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
457(b) Plans ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employees ,
ESOP ,
Flexible Spending Accounts ,
Health and Welfare Plans ,
HSA ,
IRS ,
Open Enrollment ,
Retirement Plan ,
Social Security Administration (SSA)
Retirement plan sponsors should be aware of a new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) pilot program, which permits plan sponsors to conduct a pre-examination “check-up” of retirement plan administration before the IRS begins a...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Revenue Procedure 2021-30, which provides an updated version of the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS). EPCRS is the IRS’s comprehensive program for plan sponsors to...more
8/25/2021
/ Audits ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Benefits ,
EPCRS ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Overpayment ,
Retirement Plan ,
Revenue Procedures ,
Self-Correction Programs ,
Voluntary Correction Program
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued Rev. Rul. 2020-24 and Rev. Proc. 2020-46 to provide direction with respect to qualified plan distributions paid to a state unclaimed property fund (i.e., an escheatment of...more
The SECURE Act, signed into law on December 20, 2019, is the broadest piece of retirement legislation passed in 13 years. It aims to enhance and expand retirement security for more Americans, in part, by encouraging plan...more
1/15/2020
/ 401k ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Benefits ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Required Minimum Distributions ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Providers ,
SECURE Act ,
Webinars
The SECURE Act—the most significant piece of retirement plan legislation in more than a decade—is now law. Plan sponsors should immediately start considering how changes included in the SECURE Act could impact their...more
1/8/2020
/ 401k ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Health and Welfare Plans ,
Multiemployer Plan ,
Required Minimum Distributions ,
Retirement ,
Retirement Plan ,
Safe Harbors ,
SECURE Act
The Treasury Department and the IRS recently finalized new hardship distribution rules applicable to defined contribution plans. Plan sponsors should prepare for operational changes to comply with the new regulations,...more
11/13/2019
/ 401k ,
403(b) Plans ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Bipartisan Budget Act ,
Employee Benefits ,
FEMA ,
Final Rules ,
Hardship Distributions ,
IRS ,
New Rules ,
Plan Documents ,
Qualified Retirement Plans ,
Retirement Plan ,
Safe Harbors ,
U.S. Treasury
Due to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) change in course published in Notice 2019-18, plan sponsors may now offer retirees lump-sum windows as another pension “de-risking” option. Plan sponsors considering pension de-risking...more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made significant changes to the tax code and will have a significant impact on businesses and individual taxpayers. However, although initial proposals included potentially significant changes to...more
1/3/2018
/ 401k ,
457(b) Plans ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
IRA Rollovers ,
Natural Disasters ,
New Legislation ,
Retirement Plan ,
Roth IRA ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Reform ,
Tax Relief
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced the cost-of-living adjustments to the applicable dollar limits for various employer-sponsored retirement and welfare plans for 2018. Although some of the dollar limits...more
The IRS recently issued new mortality tables for 2018, which will likely increase pension funding liabilities for many plan sponsors. Plan sponsors should consider options to delay the use of the new mortality tables for...more
Puerto Rico enacted new legislation in February that will require changes to tax-qualified retirement plans covering Puerto Rico employees, including both Puerto Rico-only and dual-qualified (US and Puerto Rico) retirement...more
Near the end of 2016, the US Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service published two significant sets of proposed regulations on issues pertaining to defined benefit pension plans, including mortality table...more
In Depth -
Recent reports show that the number of retirement plan audits by government agencies is increasing. A survey released by Willis Towers Watson indicates that one in every three plan sponsors has experienced a...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued Notice 2016-16, which provides safe harbor 401(k) plan sponsors with increased flexibility to make mid-year plan changes. Notice 2016-16 sets forth new rules for when and...more
Recently the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration announced the cost-of-living adjustments to the applicable dollar limits on various employer-sponsored retirement and welfare plans and the...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued two significant notices for employers that sponsor defined benefit pension plans, particularly those considering lump-sum windows as a “de-risking” option for their plans....more
9/3/2015
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
De-Risking ,
Defined Benefit Plans ,
Funding Requirements ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Lump Sum Offers ,
Lump Sum Payments ,
New Guidance ,
PBGC ,
Pensions ,
Private Letter Rulings ,
Section 401 ,
U.S. Treasury
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently released “Assessing the Quality of Employee Benefit Plan Audits,” a comprehensive report reviewing the quality of audit work...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued guidance providing defined contribution plan administrators with additional flexibility on the timing requirements for distribution of the required annual fee disclosure to...more
The Internal Revenue Service recently established a one-year pilot program that provides plan administrators and plan sponsors of certain non-ERISA and foreign plans subject to the annual Form 5500 reporting requirements...more