The IRS has issued Notice 2022-28 (the “Notice”) to explain the tax treatment of employer leave-based donation programs to aid the people of Ukraine. The Notice begins by stating that the “invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation beginning on February 24, 2022,...
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Small Employer Did Not Commit Itself to FMLA Leave Requirements
In Jones v. Wireless Time of Alabama, the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Alabama ruled that an employee was not entitled to FMLA leave despite the fact that her employer referred to the FMLA in its employee handbook. Facts. An employee who had been...
Insurer Breached Fiduciary Duty to Maintain Effective Benefit Enrollment System
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Skelton v. Radisson Hotel Bloomington, has upheld a district court’s decision that an insurer acted as a fiduciary in determining eligibility and conducting enrollment for an employer’s supplemental life insurance program, and...
Are Brokerage Windows an Effective Way of Limiting Fiduciary Risk After Hughes v. Northwestern?
In Hughes v. Northwestern University, 142 S.Ct. 737 (January 24, 2022), the Supreme Court held that fiduciaries to self-directed defined contribution retirement savings plans are responsible for determining the prudence of all investment alternatives offered on a...
IRS Announces 2023 Limits for HSAs, HDHPs and Excepted Benefit HRAs
The IRS has announced the cost-of living adjustments to the applicable dollar limits for health savings accounts (“HSAs”), high deductible health plans (“HDHPs”) and excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangements (“HRAs”). By law, these limits are indexed...
Employers Act as Fiduciaries When Managing Premium Payments for Benefit Plan
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chelf v. Prudential Insurance Company of America, has determined that a district court erred in dismissing a claim for breach of fiduciary duty based on ERISA’s “ministerial function” exception. Specifically, the Sixth Circuit...
Longstanding IRS Administrative Practice Invalidated
When agencies take controversial regulatory actions, it can be anticipated that those actions will be challenged in federal district courts as soon as they become operative, if not before. In other instances, a challenge to agency action will be unexpected, as was a...
IRS Proposes Change in Eligibility Provisions for ACA Premium Tax Credit
The IRS has issued a proposal that would amend the existing Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) regulations regarding eligibility for the law’s premium tax credit (“PTC”) to provide that the affordability of employer-sponsored minimum essential coverage for family members of...
IRS Issues Proposed Regulations for Required Minimum Distributions Under the SECURE Act
The SECURE Act (the “Act”) made two major changes to the required minimum distribution rules under Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) Section 401(a)(9): it extended the required beginning date for distributions from age 70-1/2 to age 72, other than distributions from...
IRS Issues Proposed Regulation to Give SECURE Act MEPS “Bad Apple” Relief
On March 28, 2022, the IRS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to add a new section - 26 CFR section 1.413-3 Special Rules for Section 413(e) Plans - to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). 87 Federal Register 17225 (March 28, 2022). The proposal provides...