Approximately one year after Congress enacted the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”), the IRS issued Notice 2024-02, which addresses SECURE 2.0 implementation issues and extends the plan amendment deadline. Although Notice 2024-02 offers helpful guidance for employers and plan administrators, it does not include hotly anticipated guidance on SECURE 2.0 overpayment and
SECURE 2.0
Congress Proposes SECURE 2.0 Technical Corrections Bill
As previously discussed, the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”) was signed into law on December 29, 2022 as part of the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act, and included a myriad of required and optional plan design changes for retirement plan sponsors and employers (described in more detail here). After a closer read, several…
IRS Proposes 401(k) Plan Regulations Implementing Long-Term Part-Time Employee Eligibility Requirements
The day after Thanksgiving, while many of us were fortunate enough to be reaching for leftover pie, the IRS released proposed regulations implementing the requirement that 401(k) plan sponsors permit “long-term part-time employees” to make elective contributions to a 401(k) plan. These proposed regulations arrive just one month before the statutory requirements are set to…
IRS Offers Two-Year Transition Period to Implement SECURE 2.0 Roth Catch-Up Requirement
On Friday, the IRS released Notice 2023-62, which addresses certain pressing implementation issues related to the SECURE 2.0 requirement that catch-up contributions for participants with FICA wages of more than $145,000 during the prior calendar year from the employer maintaining the plan must be made on a Roth basis.
In welcome news for plan sponsors, the guidance announces a two-year “administrative transition period” for implementation of this requirement, which was otherwise set to take effect on January 1, 2024. The notice confirms that, despite a drafting quirk in the SECURE 2.0 statute which suggested that catch-up contributions would be discontinued after 2023, catch-up contributions will continue to be available. The notice also outlines future guidance that Treasury and the IRS intend to issue on other Roth catch-up requirement topics.
Self-Help: The IRS Provides Interim Guidance for Self-Correction under the SECURE Act 2.0
The IRS recently issued Notice 2023-43 providing new interim guidance for self-correction of plan errors. This guidance applies to corrections made prior to the anticipated issuance of revisions to the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”). Under this guidance, provided certain conditions are satisfied, most Eligible Inadvertent Failures (defined below) may be self-corrected, though there are specific types of failures that may not be self-corrected at this time (discussed below).
SECURE 2.0 Opens the Door on Retirement Match Based on Student Loan Payments
The grab bag of retirement provisions in the SECURE 2.0 legislation that was enacted at the end of 2022 included an expansion of the ability for a section 401(k) or 403(b) plan, or a governmental section 457(b) plan, to provide matching contributions on participants’ student loan payments. Effective for plan years starting after December 31,…
SECURE 2.0 Includes PBGC Premium Relief… for Some Plans
As previously discussed, the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”) that was signed into law on December 29, 2022 as part of the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act includes a slew of changes for retirement plan sponsors and employers.
One of the many changes is an end to the annual indexing of…
SECURE 2.0 Brings Significant Changes for 403(b) Plans
As part of our continuing series on SECURE 2.0, signed into law December 29, 2022, this post focuses on significant changes for section 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity plans (“403(b) plans”). 403(b) plans are similar to 401(a) tax-qualified defined contribution plans but sponsored by public schools or non-profit entities and subject to unique requirements under the…
Pocket Guide to SECURE 2.0
SECURE 2.0 includes significant changes for retirement plan sponsors and employers, as discussed in our prior blog posts. If you are looking for a short summary organized by effective date, we have prepared a “pocket guide” chart, which can be downloaded here.
SECURE 2.0 Delivers New Rules for Correcting Retirement Plan Errors
As part of our ongoing series on SECURE 2.0, this post discusses three significant changes to corrections of common retirement plan errors: (1) New rules for correcting overpayments, (2) expansion of the Self-Correction Program under the IRS’s Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”) to cover most inadvertent errors, and (3) making permanent the current…