Industry & Regulatory News

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has issued updated interest rate assumptions for benefit payments in terminating single-employer defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Specifically, these interest assumptions are for benefit payments with valuation dates in the fourth quarter of 2022 and apply to plans insured by PBGC.

The IRS has issued Revenue Ruling 2022-18, which contains the applicable federal rates (AFR) for October 2022. 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.”

On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act. Employer-sponsored health plans are only indirectly impacted by the Act, but there are three main points to consider.

• Enhanced ACA premium tax credit
• Reduction on Prescription Drug Prices for Medicare
• Expanded Safe harbor for High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP)

There has been a focus on Health Savings Accounts (HSA) in recent years. This is a valuable vehicle that extends even beyond the "triple-tax-free" benefit that most employers are aware of. HSAs can reduce taxable income in retirement, which may affect Medicare premiums and the portion of Social Security benefits subject to federal income tax.

Earlier this year the proposed regulations updating deadlines and ending good faith relief for Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting became law. (See Federal Register : Information Reporting of Health Insurance Coverage and Other Issues)

Among other things, the regulations require that:

• The deadline for furnishing IRS Forms 1095-C to employees will be March 2 (or March 3 in a leap year) – which is 30 days more than what was previously allowed; and
• The transitional “good faith relief” for employer ACA reporting would no longer apply to tax years after 2020.

When an employee who has a balance in their health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) terminates from the plan (either due to termination of employment or any other reason that would cause them to lose eligibility, like a reduction in hours), the employer is not permitted to “cash out” the HRA. In other words, the employer is not allowed to provide cash or other benefits in an amount equal to some or all of the HRA balance. This is because cashing out would trigger taxation of all HRA distributions, even if they were used to pay qualified medical expenses.

On June 22, 2022, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, signed the Employee Commuter Transit Benefit ordinance. The ordinance takes effect on December 31, 2022, and requires employers with 50 or more covered employees to provide commuter transit benefits for their workers.

Flexible Spending Account (FSA) plans must be designed to meet the requirements defined in federal tax code, but employers have several opportunities to choose features that best fit the needs of their organization.

September 27, 2022

In light of the security and privacy incidences we hear about in the news on a daily basis, it seems to be a good time to highlight Cyber Security in this quarter’s Compliance Watch. On March 21, 2022, President Joe Biden gave an official statement regarding Russian cyberattacks against the U.S. — making his most prominent alert yet about what he called new intelligence concerning the Putin regime’s plans.

The IRS has released a draft 2022 Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs. Form 8606 is filed by taxpayers who have made nondeductible Traditional IRA contributions for 2022, and by taxpayers who have made nondeductible Traditional IRA contributions in previous years and have taken distributions from a Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA in 2022 or converted part of their Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRAs to Roth IRAs in 2022.