ROBERT R. GOWER, January 2016 – On January 4, 2016, an order issued by U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton in Schuett v. FedEx Corp., (No. 15-CV-0189-PJH, 2016 WL 104267 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 4, 2016)) brought light to a long anticipated question surrounding the retroactive application of the United States Supreme Court opinion in United […]
Retirement Plans
FREEMAN L. LEVINRAD, January 2016 To help those employers that allowed employees to exclude more than $130 in nontaxable monthly transit benefits for 2015, the IRS issued Notice 2016-6 to facilitate their adjustment of employees’ federal nontaxable wages following the recent retroactive increase in excludable transit benefits. On December 18, 2015, the President signed the […]
ROBERT R. GOWER and ERIC J. SCHILLINGER, January 2016 — On December 9, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued Notice 2015-86, providing guidance on the application of the June 26, 2015 United States Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (“Obergefell”) to qualified retirement plans under Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) section 401(a) and health […]
SUSAN QUINTANAR, December 2015 — Plan sponsors need to remain attentive about ensuring that elective deferrals are deposited into their 401(k) plans on a timely basis. Plans may be subject to a higher risk for audit where late deposits are concerned, especially in those cases where there has been a pattern of recurring delinquent deposits […]
MIKAELA C. HABIB, December 2015 — On Friday, December 4, 2015, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (“FAST”) Act of 2015 was signed into law. The FAST Act repealed the additional one month extension of the Form 5500 filing deadline introduced by the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015. As a […]
MIKAELA C. HABIB, November 2015 — The recently enacted Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 (the “Act”) includes changes to various reporting deadlines for corporations, partnerships, and certain tax-exempt entities. Included are the filing deadlines for the Form 5500 (Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan), the Form 990 (Return of […]
NICHOLAS J. WHITE, October 2015 — In 2008, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a safe-harbor regulation for plan investment fiduciaries regarding a prudent process for selecting and monitoring annuity providers and contracts for defined contribution plans (the “Safe Harbor Rule”). In Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2015-2 (the “FAB”), issued this past summer, the DOL […]
SHANNON OLIVER and KEVIN E. NOLT, October 2015 — The Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) has announced the annual cost-of-living adjustments applicable to dollar limitations for retirement plans and other items for Tax Year 2016. The retirement plan limitations generally are unchanged in 2016 because in most cases the slight increase in the cost-of-living index […]
T. KATURI KAYE, September 2015 — On September 9, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued final regulations on determining minimum required pension contributions under Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) section 430 for single employer defined benefit pension plans for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2016. Code section 430 was added by the […]
ROBERT R. GOWER, July 2015 — On July 21, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released Announcement 2015-19, announcing a significant curtailment of the IRS determination letter program for individually designed retirement plans. Announcement 2015-19 eliminates the five-year remedial amendment cycle for individually designed retirement plans and restricts the IRS determination letter program to limited […]
JENNIFER D. BROOKS, July 2014 — If your 401(k), or other defined contribution plan document is a prototype or volume submitter plan, then it may seem like just yesterday you were contacted by your document provider and asked to restate your plan document for Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (“EGTRRA”). In […]
On December 11, 2013, the IRS released Notice 2013-74 (the “Notice”), providing guidance on the recent expansion of the types of contributions eligible for an in-plan Roth rollover under new Section 402(c)(4)(E) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), as added by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Before, plans could only allow participants […]
The Internal Revenue Service (the “Service”) recently released Notice 2013-84, which contains the 2013 Cumulative List of Changes in Plan Qualification Requirements (the “2013 Cumulative List”) described in Section 4 of Revenue Procedure 2007-44. The 2013 Cumulative List is to be used by plan sponsors and practitioners submitting determination letter applications for plans during the […]
The Internal Revenue Service has announced the annual cost-of-living adjustments applicable to dollar limitations for pension plans and other items for Tax Year 2014. Many of the pension plan limitations were increased, as the increase in the cost-of-living index met the statutory thresholds that trigger their adjustment. Some limitations, for instance those governing 401(k) plans […]
On November 14, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued final regulations relating to the suspension or reduction of employer safe harbor contributions to certain cash or deferred arrangements (“CODAs”) under Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) section 401(k). Following proposed regulations issued in 2009, the final regulations provide guidance on permissible mid-year reductions or suspensions in […]
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