ERISA News

The Internal Revenue Service has released Notice 2024-71, Expenses Treated as Amounts Paid for Medical Care. The notice provides a safe harbor for qualifying medical expenses from a health flexible spending arrangement (health FSA), Archer medical savings account (Archer MSA), health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), or health savings account (HSA) for amounts paid for condoms.

The Internal Revenue Service has released Notice 2024-75,  Preventive Care for Purposes of Qualifying as a High Deductible Health Plan under Section 223. This notice expands the list of preventive care benefits permitted to be provided by a high deductible health plan (HDHP) to include over-the-counter oral contraceptives and male condoms.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a Major Disaster Declaration on October 16, 2024, for Alaska flooding, for the incident period of August 5, 2024 – August 6, 2024.

The Internal Revenue Service has released Notice 2024-77, Guidance Under Sections 414(aa) and 402(c)(12) of the Internal Revenue Code with Respect to Inadvertent Benefit Overpayments.

The IRS has issued Revenue Ruling 2024-24 which contains the applicable federal rates (AFR) for October 2024. These rates are used for such purposes as calculating distributions from retirement savings arrangements that meet the requirements for substantially equal periodic payments (a 10 percent early distribution penalty tax exception), also referred to as “72(t) payments.”

The IRS has announced the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for victims of Hurricane Milton in Florida until May 1, 2025.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a Major Disaster Declaration on October 11, 2024, for Florida Hurricane Milton, for the incident period of October 5, 2024 and continuing.

The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation has determined premium rates applicable for the 2025 plan year in accordance with indexing rules provided in ERISA Section 4006. The single-employer plan per-participant flat rate premium for plan years beginning in 2025 is $106, up from $101 in 2024. The single-employer plan variable-rate premium for 2025 remains the same at $52 per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits. The variable-rate premium per participant cap increased to $717 per participant, from $686 in 2024.

Representative Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) has introduced HR 9820 – the Employee and Retiree Access to Justice Act.

The Social Security Administration has issued the 2025 adjustments for benefits and certain other limitations that are subject to annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) indices.