SECURE Act

The IRS has issued Notice 2024-35 to provide additional transition relief for certain specified RMDs for 2024.

Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Richard Burr (R-NC)—chair and ranking members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee respectively—have released a discussion draft of compiled retirement provisions from several bills into the Senate’s latest version of what has been coined SECURE Act 2.0. The RISE & SHINE Act shares some similarities to, and builds upon the Securing a Strong Retirement Act bill that passed the House in March.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022 (SSRA) by a 414-5 vote on March 29, 2022. H.R. 2954 (also commonly referred to as “SECURE 2.0”) contains over 50 retirement plan provisions—nearly double the number as the original Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019. The U.S. Senate is expected to take up a similar bipartisan bill later this year, which could result in the need for a conference committee to reconcile differences between the two bills.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued Announcement 2022-6, providing that effective March 14, 2022, and until further notice, the IRS will not accept applications for opinion letters on prototype IRAs (Traditional, Roth, and SIMPLE IRAs), SEP plans (including salary reduction SEPs (SAR-SEPs)), and SIMPLE IRA plans. Adopters of these arrangements may rely on a previously received favorable opinion letter, and can use existing model forms to maintain or establish plans and accounts.

The temporary suspension will allow the IRS to update the prototype IRA opinion letter program, issue revised model forms and Listings of Required Modifications (LRMs), and issue published guidance to reflect recent legislation. This is essentially the first step in a larger process requiring document updates for these arrangements pursuant to the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, details of which will be provided in future guidance.

Final regulations entitled, Implement SECURE Act and Related Revisions to Employee Benefit Plan Annual Reporting on the Form 5500, issued by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), have been received by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) provides final review of regulatory guidance before its official release.

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act included a provision that would allow employers sponsoring defined contribution plans that have the same trustee, administrator, fiduciaries, plan year, and investment options, to file one common Form 5500 beginning in 2022. Proposed guidance was issued last fall under a larger guidance package, with details shared in a Washington Pulse.

After a two year wait, we have guidance regarding certain changes brought about by the SECURE Act. On February 23, 2022, the IRS released proposed regulations that revise the existing required minimum distribution (RMD) regulations and other related regulations.

As announced on February 23, 2022, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released proposed regulations related to required minimum distributions (RMDs). The IRS released the proposed regulations due in large part to changes made by the SECURE Act, including increasing the RMD age from age 70½ to age 72 and eliminating the life expectancy options for many beneficiaries. While review of these substantial regulations is ongoing and additional details will be provided, a few initial highlights are worth noting.

• If an account owner dies after the required beginning date, the proposal would require that the 10-year rule include annual payments. Although the SECURE Act is silent regarding the applicability of annual distributions under the 10-year rule, the IRS is contending that the old “at least as rapidly” rule applies in conjunction with the new 10-year rule.
• Spousal beneficiaries would need to elect to treat a decedent’s IRA as their own by the later of December 31 in the year following the year of the account owner’s death, or age 72.
• The proposed regulations clarify that the age of majority for minor eligible designated beneficiaries is age 21.
• An exception has been added that allows an automatic waiver of the 50 percent excess accumulation penalty tax if a year-of-death RMD was missed and the beneficiary removes the required amount by his tax return due date, plus extensions for the year that the RMD should have been taken.
• If an account owner has multiple beneficiaries and one or more of the beneficiaries is not an eligible designated beneficiary, then the account owner is generally treated as having no eligible designated beneficiaries. Exceptions apply to children of the account owner and to multi-beneficiary trusts.

The regulations are proposed to become effective in 2022 for 2022 calendar distribution years. But because written comments are being accepted until May 25, 2022, and a public hearing is scheduled for June 15, 2022, the anticipated timing of the final rule is likely to be late summer or fall—at the earliest. For 2021, the existing regulations must be applied, along with a good faith application of the increased RMD age and the change in beneficiary options. Application of the proposed regulations for 2021 will result in compliance with the good faith requirement.

Leadership from the House Committee on Education and Labor and its Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions have introduced the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement (RISE) Act to expand worker access to a secure retirement.

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), in conjunction with the IRS and Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), have released proposed forms revisions modifying requirements for Form 5500, Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, reporting. Additionally, the EBSA has issued a proposed rule to amend regulations relating to annual reporting requirements under Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

The IRS has issued its initial 2021-2022 Priority Guidance Plan, in which it describes guidance projects in the current fiscal year. Many items in the plan have appeared in prior years’ Priority Guidance Plans.