Joe Yonadi

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SECURE Act 2.0 Mandatory Automatic Enrollment Requirements for New Retirement Plans Guidance Released

One of the hallmarks of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE Act 2.0) legislation was to increase participation in retirement plans. On January 10, 2025, the Treasury Department and the IRS came one step closer when they announced the issuance of proposed regulations requiring automatic enrollment for new Code Section 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plans (Proposed Regulations). As background, the SECURE Act 2.0 added Code Section 414A, which provides that a retirement plan will not be qualified unless it satisfies certain automatic enrollment requirements under Code Section 414(w). These requirements: … Continue Reading

The Department of Labor (DOL) Adopts Self-Correction for Common Retirement Plan Fiduciary Breaches

For the first time since the DOL adopted its Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFC Program) in 2002, retirement plan sponsors will be able to utilize self–correction as an efficient means to correct their most frequent compliance failures – late transmittals of participant retirement plan contributions and retirement plan loan repayments.   The DOL finalized an … Continue Reading

DOL Crypto Guidance Heeds Strong Warning to Retirement Plan Sponsors Looking to Add Digital Asset Investments to Retirement Plan Lineups

Directly on the heels of the Biden Administration’s digital asset Executive Order issued on March 9, 2022[1] (Executive Order), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its own guidance on the use of cryptocurrencies as a 401(k) plan investment in Compliance Assistance Release No. 2022-01 (CAR).   The DOL guidance is not limited to crypto, but … Continue Reading

ARPA Expands Section 162(m) Covered Employee Group

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”)[1] makes a small but significant change for publicly held corporations subject to the compensation deduction limitations under Internal Revenue Code Section 162(m). In general, Code Section 162(m) limits deductions for compensation in excess of $1 million for “covered employees”.… Continue Reading

Stimulus Bill Extends the Availability of Student Loan Forgiveness

Section 2206 of the CARES Act allowed an exclusion of up to $5,250 from an employee’s gross income, if an employer paid principal or interest on an employee’s “Qualified Education Loan”. Section 2206 of the CARES Act was only designed to be in effect for calendar year 2020. However, The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the … Continue Reading

Flexibility Act Makes Key Change to CARES Act Payroll Tax Deferral Incentive and Other Key Changes

Following up on our prior post (here), regarding the Paycheck Protection Program loans (“PPP Loans”), President Trump signed the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 into law (the “Flexibility Act”) on June 5, 2020. The Flexibility Act relaxes and modifies certain requirements to obtain PPP Loan forgiveness. Specifically, the Flexibility Act makes five main … Continue Reading

IRS Guidance Provides Employers with the ability to offer A Second Open Enrollment Period for the 2020 Plan Year and Provides Greater Flexibility for Making Mid-Year Cafeteria Plan Elections

Providing much needed assistance to employees’ who were blindsided by COVID-19 and who were incapable of making health care coverage elections with COVID-19 in mind, the IRS on May 12, 2020, provided temporary relief that allows employers, during 2020, to expand the permissible reasons for employees to make prospective mid-year election changes to their health … Continue Reading

IRS Reverses Course on the application of Qualified Healthcare Expenses to the Employee Retention Tax Credit, and Clarifies Credit Eligibility in the event of a PPP Loan Repayment

In our blog post dated May 7, 2020, we noted that the IRS Question and Answers regarding the Employee Retention Tax Credit (the “ERTC” & the “Q&As”) stated that an employer cannot claim an ERTC for qualified health care expenses, unless it also pays the employee other wages during the relevant time period. We further noted … Continue Reading

Employee Retention Tax Credits – Q&As

New guidance issued by the US Internal Revenue Service in the form of Q&As posted on its website, clarify the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) provisions contained in the CARES Act. The guidance is more restrictive than anticipated, and employers may face difficult decisions about claiming the tax credits. Our latest publication explores this issue … Continue Reading

IRS Publishes Frequently Asked Questions on Payroll Tax Deferral

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provides employers a number of economic relief programs, including deferral of employers’ share of quarterly social security tax deposits and forgivable Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans. The IRS recently released a set of frequently asked questions and answers regarding the CARES Act’s deferral of quarterly Social … Continue Reading
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