On September 26, 2022, the IRS released IRS Notice 2022-45, which corrected a potential oversight in IRS Notice 2022-33, discussed in detail here.  Notice 2022-33 had extended the deadline to adopt certain retirement and savings plan amendments required by the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (“SECURE Act”) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) from December 31, 2022 to December 31, 2025, but the extension did not apply for certain CARES Act provisions, including: penalty-free coronavirus-related distributions, increasing the permissible loan amount, and delaying repayment of loan amounts.

Notice 2022-45 rectifies this inconsistency, deferring the deadline to adopt changes covered by Section 2202 of the CARES Act—i.e., penalty-free coronavirus-related distributions, increasing the permissible loan amount, and delaying repayment of loan amounts—from December 31, 2022 to December 31, 2025.  In addition, Notice 2022-45 similarly extends the deadline for adopting qualified disaster distribution provisions pursuant to the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act (“Relief Act”).  The notice explains that the purpose of this clarification was to ensure that all amendments required by the SECURE, CARES, and Relief Acts can be adopted in a single amendment.

This clarification is welcome for many plan administrators and sponsors as it eliminates confusion from some amendments being deferred but others being due this year.

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