Resource Center

To read this Alert in PDF format, click HERE. At the beginning of 2019, we prepared an Alert summarizing changes that Congress and the IRS had made to the rules governing hardship distributions from 401(k) and 403(b) plans. (That Alert can be found HERE.) Since then, two things have happened:  First, […]

If employees are insured under individual policies of health insurance, can their employer pay the premiums for that coverage?  Right now, the answer is “no,” subject to limited exceptions for certain small employers and S corporations. Beginning January 1, 2020, however, that answer will change and employers of all sizes […]

Hardship Distribution Rules – Once funds have been put into a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, the normal rule is that they cannot be withdrawn by the participant while the participant is still employed.  There are, however, several exceptions to this general rule, including an exception that allows plans to make […]

The past couple of years have been relatively quiet on the 401(k) plan front.  This is particularly true with respect to IRS required plan document changes.  This has been a welcome break. There was a time when it seemed like plan amendments were required nearly every year.  However, we would […]

About that Change in the HSA Dollar Limit – The IRS Just Said “Never Mind” On March 2, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), following the directions it had been given by Congress, threw a curve at nearly everyone by announcing that the dollar limit for 2018 contributions to a […]

Health Savings Accounts: Congress and the IRS Team Up to Throw Us a Curve Spring training is still underway and Opening Day is two weeks away, but the first curveball of the 2018 employee benefits season has just been thrown. The dollar limits for contributions to Health Savings Accounts (“HSAs”) […]

IRS Again Extends Deadline for Distributing 1095-B and 1095-C Forms and Continues Good Faith Standard in Completing Forms If the IRS releases new guidance so late in December that nearly everyone has already left for Christmas vacation, is the effect the same as a tree falling in a vacant forest?  […]

Although the regulatory environment surrounding the Affordable Care Act continues to remain mostly silent this year – providing all of us a welcome respite from the chaotic whirlwind of activity over the last few years – the IRS did announce a number of important changes that will affect all employers […]

One of the lesser known, but critically significant, changes ushered in by the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) was a general prohibition on employers reimbursing the cost of their employees’ individual health insurance policies.  The failure to adhere to this rule triggers substantial excise taxes that can break the back of […]

It has long been a practice of the federal government to dump bad news on the public on Friday afternoons.  So when we received an email on the afternoon of Friday, November 18, 2016, that the IRS was announcing changes to the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) health care reporting requirements, […]