In a Private Letter Ruling released on August 17, 2018 (PLR 201833012) (“Ruling”), the IRS approved an employer’s proposed amendment to its 401(k) plan (“Plan”), under which it would make an employer non-elective contribution on behalf of an employee conditioned on the employee making student loan repayments (“SLR non-elective contribution”). As described in the Ruling, the proposed student loan repayment benefit program (the “program”), is a voluntary program under which the employee must elect to…
Last week, the IRS issued Notice 2018-68 containing initial guidance on the amendments to section 162(m) made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”), including the transitional relief for written binding contracts. On balance, the guidance is not particularly favorable to taxpayers, as it takes a narrow view of the grandfathering relief for arrangements in effect under prior law, particularly for arrangements with negative discretion, and a broad view of the new group of…
Now is the time to consider opportunities to manage global pension cost and risk. Many employers have already frozen their defined benefit plans and implemented defined contribution plans. Of course, such cost-reduction strategies may raise employment law issues in non-US jurisdictions because of the Acquired Rights Directive in EU jurisdictions and similar legislation elsewhere. In considering any such change, an employer has to consider how such change will be communicated to employees and employee representatives,…
Almost all plan documents contain some level of administrative provisions outlining how the plan is intended to operate (e.g., number of committee members, quorum, etc.). Plan sponsors often view these provisions as “boilerplate” with little or no meaning. In actuality, these are substantive provisions of the plan and failure to follow those provisions can have substantial consequences. The Consequences Failure to follow the terms of the plan document is a potential qualification issue under IRS…
On May 11th, the staff of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued 45 Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (CDIs), replacing previously published telephone interpretations on proxy rules and Schedule 14A. Most of the updates are non-substantive, as noted by the SEC, and therefore the updates are primarily helpful for consolidating the relevant guidance in one place. Twelve of the CDIs relate to Item 10 of Schedule 14A, which sets forth the disclosure rules when a…
After an abrupt mid-year change, the IRS recently released Revenue Procedure 2018-27, which provides relief for employees with family coverage under a High Deductible Health Plan who also contribute to a Health Savings Account (HSA), by permitting such employees to use the previously announced $6,900 contribution limit for 2018 contributions. In May 2017, the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2017-37 which provided the annual inflation adjusted contribution limits for HSAs and stated that the 2018 contribution…
As part of the tax reform process, Congress proposed several changes to qualified retirement plans that were cut from the final bill. One of these proposals, making changes to the rules governing 401(k) hardship distributions, found a new home in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, signed by the President on February 9, 2018 (the “Act”). The Act also made qualified retirement plan changes which provide additional relief to employees impacted by the California wildfires…
The IRS, DOL and PBGC recently provided various forms of relief intended to help employees and employers impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Hurricane Irma. In this second blog post we review funding and reporting relief and take a brief look at Vacation/PTO donation programs. To read our first post on loans and hardship distributions from qualified plans, click here. Defined-Benefit Plan Funding Relief IRS Notice 2017-49 provides single defined-benefit plan sponsors or employers covering more…
The IRS, DOL and PBGC recently provided various forms of relief intended to help employees and employers impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Hurricane Irma. Due to the extent of the relief provided we are covering this information in two blog posts – the first of which will focus on loans and hardship distributions from qualified plans and the second of which will look at the various reporting and funding extensions available. Plan Loans and Hardship…