Defined Contribution Plan

The same IRS Notice (2020-68) that addresses Qualified Birth or Adoption Distributions (QBADs) also deals with how to handle the SECURE Act’s inclusion of long-term part-time employees and their eligibility for 401(k) plans.

While QBADs have been permissible since January 2020 under the SECURE Act, many employers have been waiting for some IRS guidance on how these distributions would be implemented before making a decision as to whether to include a QBAD as a plan feature. IRS Notice 2020-68 does that (and a bit more).

Much has been written about the calculations necessary to compute the amount of payroll costs that must be a major component of PPP loan forgiveness. In fact, at least 60% of the forgivable amount (previously 75%) must come from allowable payroll costs. So what constitutes payroll costs?

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) was signed into law on March 27, 2020. It's a mammoth bill of over 880 pages, and contains many employee benefit-related items. This post, the second in the CARES Act series deals with the qualified retirement plan provisions in the Act.

Much later than usual, the IRS released the 2020 retirement plan contribution limits. Earlier this year, they also released the High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and Health Savings Account (HSA) limits. We now also have the cafeteria plan, adoption credit, and transit benefit limits as well.

The US Department of Labor has suddenly realized that employers and their employees use a newfangled means of communicating in the real world: e-mail and the internet. In a bold move proposing their latest regulations he DOL has proposed new rules.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently published an Information Letter that confirms the general preemption under ERISA of state civil laws that require employers to obtain written consent before withholding amounts from employees’ wages for contribution to a benefit plan subject to ERISA.

The IRS has announced the limits for employee benefit plans for 2019.

The IRS has recently sort of, kind of, maybe, in special circumstances enabled employers to make a matching contribution to their 401(k) plan on behalf of eligible plan participants who, instead of contributing to the 401(k), make certain qualifying student loan repayments instead.

A new Section 199A of the 2017 Tax Act passed by Congress in December of that year enables small business owners--especially sole proprietors, subchapter S corporations, and partnerships--to get up to a 20% deduction of qualified business income if they have total income below certain thresholds.

When small employers make operational errors in their 401(k) or other retirement plans, and before the IRS or DOL provide a notice of an audit, the employer has the ability to self-correct under two different IRS programs.

With IRS Notice 2017-64, we now have the applicable retirement and health and welfare benefit limits for 2018. Many (but not all) have increased from 2017. Earlier this year, the IRS announced the 2018 Health Savings Account (HSA) limits and plan designs.