by Becky Achten & Lyn Domenick
The Internal Revenue Code imposes dollar limitations on various compensation, benefit and contribution levels under qualified retirement plans. Today, the Internal Revenue Service announced the 2020 cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for qualified retirement plans. Check out our chart for easy reference!
by Ben Gibbons
As you may recall, Private Letter Ruling 201833012 (the “PLR”), concerning the IRS’ approval of Abbott Laboratories’ plan to implement 401(k) matching contributions on student loan repayments, was released to much fanfare in the summer of 2018. We’ve learned that at last week’s annual NASPP conference in New Orleans, Stephen Tackney, Deputy Associate Chief Counsel of the IRS Office of Chief Counsel (and author of the Section 409A deferred compensation regulations) announced that the IRS is working on converting the PLR into a revenue ruling that can be relied upon by all employers.
Read moreby Brenda Berg
If you are one of those plan sponsors who was waiting for the final hardship regulations to be issued before making any changes to hardship distributions in your plans – your time has come. The Treasury Department and IRS issued the final regulations on September 19, 2019 for publication today, September 23, 2019.
These regulations finalize the proposed regulations issued on November 14, 2018, and they are essentially the same with some clarifications. Plans that made changes in compliance with the proposed regulations will be deemed to have complied with the final regulations. Overall the rules – which generally apply to 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, and 457(b) plans – ease some of the restrictions on taking hardship distributions.
Read moreby Beth Nedrow
In late July, the Department of Labor released a rule allowing small businesses to more easily band together in a joint retirement plan. The idea is that a larger plan will have more leverage to obtain better pricing and better service from vendors. Equally important is the ability of employers to offload some or all of the responsibility for maintaining retirement plans.
The final rule alters the definition of “employer” in ERISA for purposes of who may establish and maintain an individual account defined contribution retirement plan. Under the new rule, a group or association, or a PEO (professional employer organization) can sponsor what the DOL refers to as a “MEP” – a “multiple employer plan.” The regulation is limited to “bona fide” groups, associations and PEOs – which means they must have a business purpose or other common connection, and not merely have the purpose of providing the retirement plan. In this way, the new rule mirrors the DOL’s regulations intended to expand the availability of association health plans (“AHPs”), which is currently stalled due to litigation.
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