IRS Guidance

The IRS has issued Notice 2021-21, in which the IRS makes official the previously announced delay of the April 15, 2021 federal income tax filing due date for individuals for the 2020 tax year to May 17, 2021. This delay is a result of the ongoing COVID-19 Emergency Declaration issued in March 2020.

The IRS has issued Announcement 2021-7, indicating that amounts paid for personal protective equipment (PPE)—such as masks, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes—that are primarily used to prevent the spread of COVID-19, are treated as amounts paid for medical care under Internal Revenue Code Section 213(d). As a result, the amounts are also eligible to be paid or reimbursed under health flexible spending arrangements (FSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), and health savings accounts (HSAs).

The Treasury Department and IRS have announced that tax filing due dates for 2020 tax year federal income tax returns, including the federal income tax payment deadline, will be automatically extended from April 15, 2021, to May 17, 2021. No special form must be filed to request the filing extension. The IRS will be providing formal guidance in the coming days.

The IRS has issued a news release announcing the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for Louisiana winter storm victims. The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting on February 11. The entire state of Louisiana is included in this relief. Taxpayers in other locations will automatically be added to this relief if the disaster area is further expanded.

The IRS has made available a third early release 2022 tax year draft Form W-4P, Withholding Certificate for Periodic Pension or Annuity Payments. The IRS indicated previously that the form will be split into two forms. Form W-4P will continue to be used, but only to withhold federal income tax from periodic retirement plan and IRA payments. Periodic payments are installment payments at regular intervals generally over a period of more than one year.

The IRS has made available a 2022 tax year draft Form W-4P, Withholding Certificate for Periodic Pension or Annuity Payments, and indicates that the form will be split into two forms. Form W-4P will continue to be used, but only to withhold federal income tax from periodic retirement plan and IRA payments. Periodic payments are installment payments at regular intervals generally over a period of more than one year.

The IRS has issued Notice 2021-15, providing additional guidance and flexibility to employee benefit plans offering health FSA and dependent care arrangements. Because of COVID-19, employees participating in these programs are more likely to have unused amounts in these accounts as a result of changes in anticipated expenses during the pandemic. To qualify as a cafeteria plan under IRC Section 125, funds remaining at the end of the plan year generally cannot be carried over to future plan years, and restrictions apply when modifying elections after the start of the plan year.

The IRS has announced in an Employee Plans News bulletin that processing requests for an extension of time to file 2019 Forms 5500 series returns were delayed in 2020, resulting in delayed mailing of Notice CP 216F.

At the end of 2019, the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) was amended to create a mandatory 60-day postponement for certain federal tax-related deadlines in the event of a disaster. This new provision was designed to ensure that affected taxpayers would have guaranteed relief while recovering from a natural disaster or other emergency. But this measure didn’t seem to affect how the IRS had already been responding to such events. In fact, the new law created some ambiguity.

Plan participants have more time to roll over certain plan loan offsets under the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). These are known as qualified plan loan offsets (QPLOs). In response to this legislative change, the IRS released proposed regulations in August 2020. The IRS finalized the regulations in December 2020, with only one modification: the applicability date.