ERISA News

December 28, 2021 – The IRS has issued a news release announcing the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for victims of severe storms, straight-line winds, and tornados in Illinois. The tax relief postpones various tax filing deadlines that began December 10, 2021. Affected individuals and households who reside or have a business in Bond, Cass, Coles, Effingham, Fayette, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Menard, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Pike, and Shelby counties, as well as taxpayers with records located in the covered area that are needed to meet covered deadlines, qualify for relief.

December 28, 2021 – The IRS has issued a news release announcing the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for victims of severe storms and flooding in Alabama. The tax relief postpones various tax filing deadlines that began October 6, 2021. Affected individuals and households who reside or have a business in Jefferson and Shelby counties, as well as taxpayers with records located in the covered area that are needed to meet covered deadlines, qualify for relief.

December 22, 2021 – The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) has issued a supplemental statement to a June 2020 Information Letter. The letter addressed whether plan fiduciaries should offer private equity investments as investment options in individual account defined contribution plans. The 2020 letter indicated that such plans could potentially include managed asset allocation funds with a private equity component, but pointed out that a plan fiduciary should take into account whether it is prudent to include such an investment, particularly if it is a component of a plan’s qualified default investment alternative (QDIA).

The IRS has issued Notice 2022-2, which contains updated guidance on factors used in certain defined benefit (DB) pension plan minimum funding and present value calculations. Updates include the corporate bond monthly yield curve, the corresponding spot segment rates used under Internal Revenue Code Section (IRC Sec.) 417(e)(3), and the 24-month average segment rates under IRC Sec. 430(h)(2). IRC Sec. 417 contains definitions and special rules for minimum survivor annuity requirements in DB plans. IRC Sec. 430 addresses minimum funding standards for single-employer DB plans.

The IRS has issued a news release announcing the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for Kentucky victims of severe storms, flooding, and tornadoes. The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting December 10. The areas included in the relief are Caldwell, Fulton, Graves, Hopkins, Marshall, Muhlenberg, Taylor, and Warren counties.

The IRS has provided draft Instructions for Form 8915-F, Qualified Disaster Retirement Plan Distributions and Repayments.

On November 19, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act ("BBB Act" or "the Act"). Following quickly on the heels of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the BBB Act contains several retirement and benefits provisions that may affect financial organizations, service providers, and consumers. This bill has gone through numerous revisions as it made its journey to the House floor for a vote. It will now go to the Senate, which will likely make further revisions. So the Act’s final version—if passed by both the House and Senate—may be different from the current version.

On November 22, 2021, the Department of the Treasury released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) entitled, "Information Reporting of Health Insurance Coverage and Other Issues Under Internal Revenue Code Sections (IRC Secs.) 5000A, 6055, and 6056," that extend the applicable deadlines to furnish statements, clarify that certain Medicaid coverage is not minimum essential coverage, and provide a deadline to submit comments relating to 2016 proposed rules affecting reporting. Comments related to the NPR are due 60 days following the publication of the NPR in the federal register. The NPR provides as follows.

The House of Representatives passed the $1.9 trillion Build Back Better bill in a 220-213 near party line vote. The House-passed version of the bill contains several IRA provisions, including

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the Act), signed by President Biden on November 15, 2021, includes extensions to the single employer pension funding relief originally provided in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). Other provisions include modifications to the mandatory 60-day postponement period, which grants relief to taxpayers for certain tax-related acts due to federally declared disasters and new reporting requirements for transactions involving digital assets. The effective dates vary—pension funding relief provisions apply to plan years beginning after December 31, 2021; the disaster relief changes are effective for federally declared disasters that occur after November 15, 2021; and the new reporting requirements for digital assets apply to information reports required to be filed after December 31, 2023.