Seyfarth Synopsys: On September 26, 2022, the IRS issued Notice 2022-45, extending the deadline for amending retirement plans and individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”) for optional changes under the CARES Act.

As we discussed in our prior blog post [here], on August 3, 2022. the IRS issued Notice 2022-33, extending the deadlines for amending retirement plans, 403(b) plans and individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”) for changes under the (i) Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”); (ii) Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 (the “Miners Act”); and (iii) Section 2203 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”). For most plans, the extension provided plan sponsors with an additional three years, until December 31, 2025, to amend plan documents to reflect most of the changes under these Acts.

Notably, the prior guidance did not extend the due date for optional CARES Act amendments, such as penalty-free coronavirus-related distributions, increased permissible loan amounts, and delayed repayment of loans. The deadline for those changes remained generally December 31, 2022.

Happily, on September 26, 2022, the IRS issued Notice 2022-45. The Notice extends the due date for optional CARES Act amendments to December 31, 2025 for nongovernmental qualified retirement plans and IRAs (including 401(k) plans and 403(b) plans not maintained by public schools). In addition, the Notice extends the amendment deadline for such plans for qualified disaster distribution provisions under the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act (“Relief Act”) to December 31, 2025. The upshot to the Notice is that for these plans, all SECURE, Miners, CARES and Relief Act amendments can be adopted at the same time.

The Notice similarly extended the due date for optional CARES Act and Relief Act amendments for qualified governmental retirement plans, public school 403(b) plans and governmental 457(b) plans. The due date for these amendments is generally the 90th day after the close of the third regular legislative session of the legislative body with the authority to amend the plan that begins after December 31, 2023, which is the due date previously announced for the other provisions of the Acts.

Tax exempt employers that sponsor 457(b) plans did not receive an extension to adopt SECURE Act amendments. These amendments include changes to required beginning dates and required minimum distributions. The due date for these amendments remains December 31, 2022.