News

President Biden has nominated Lisa M. Gomez for Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). Ms. Gomez is a partner at the law firm of Cohen, Weiss and Simon and chair of the firm’s management committee. The law firm focuses on labor, employee benefits, union governance practice, and other employment areas. Ms. Gomez has represented Taft-Hartley multiemployer pension and health plans, as well as single employer, supplemental, and federal health plans. She is a graduate of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Labor and Employment Law’s Leadership Development Program and has held several board or committee positions with the ABA and other organizations.

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL) have introduced the Women’s Retirement Protection Act of 2021 in their respective chambers. The legislation is intended to address what some have identified as a gap between the retirement preparedness of women compared to their male counterparts—a gap seemingly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Key provisions of the legislation are as follows.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) and six other Democratic Senators have introduced the Encouraging Americans to Save Act (EASA).

The legislation is similar to past proposals introduced by Senator Wyden and other co-sponsors and includes the following.

The IRS has issued Notice 2021-46, which provides additional guidance affecting the application of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 on COBRA continuation coverage. The notice primarily focuses on state mini-COBRA provisions and the premium subsidy credit as follows.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has provided FAQs addressing questions about the timing of implementation of pension benefit statement lifetime income illustrations under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act. The SECURE Act requires plan sponsors of ERISA-covered plans to disclose annually a projection of a lifetime income stream that could be generated by a participant’s total accrued benefit. Implementation is to be effective for benefit statements provided more than 12 months after the DOL issued guidance.

The IRS has released a pre-publication version of proposed regulations amending rules intended to increase the filing of electronic returns in accordance with the Taxpayer First Act of 2019. Additionally, the IRS has withdrawn previously proposed regulations regarding electronic filing that were published on May 31, 2018.

The IRS has issued a news release announcing the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for Michigan victims of severe storms, flooding, and tornadoes. The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting June 25. Individuals and households that were affected and reside in the Washtenaw and Wayne counties, as well as taxpayers with records located in the covered area needed to meet covered deadlines qualify for relief.

The IRS has released Revenue Procedure 2021-30, which contains long-awaited guidance updating the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS). Plan sponsors use EPCRS to correct certain plan qualification failures. EPCRS is composed of the Self-Correction Program (SCP), the Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) and the Audit Closing Agreement Program (Audit CAP), and there are several noteworthy changes.

The IRS issued Notice 2021-40, extending guidance released under Notice 2020-42 and previously extended by Notice 2021-03, which provided temporary relief from the physical presence requirements for certain elections that are made by participants and beneficiaries in qualified retirement plans and other tax-favored retirement arrangements. The additional extension provides relief through June 30, 2022. This includes signatures of those making an election ordinarily needing to be witnessed in the physical presence of a plan representative or notary public, including spousal consent and certain forms of distribution from retirement plans.

Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) recently introduced two bills aimed at providing more flexibility for the use of health savings accounts (HSAs). Senate bill 2113 proposes to expand permissible distributions from an employee’s health flexible spending arrangement or health reimbursement arrangement to the employee’s HSA. Senate bill 2099 proposes to make HSAs more broadly available by removing the requirement that individuals be enrolled in a high deductible health plan. Further details of these proposals have not yet been made available.