Midyear Premium Increases and Cafeteria Plan Rules
COVID-19-Related Guidance Allows Employees to Revise 2020 Health Insurance Elections
COVID-19 Impact for Health & Welfare Plans (Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton COVID-19 Issues for Employers Podcast Series)
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - COVID-19 Edition; New Opportunities for Health Flexible Spending Arrangements and Cafeteria Plans
Compliance Issues Associated with Section 125 Plans
We are pleased to present our annual End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. This year, we present our “To Do” Lists in four separate Employee Benefits Updates. This Part 1 covers year-end health and welfare plan issues....more
Most employers allow employees covered by the employer-sponsored group health and welfare plans to pay their share of the cost through pre-tax payroll deductions. In order to do this the employer must maintain a written...more
Each year, employers are faced with a number of year end deadlines related to employee benefits as well as new requirements facing them in the coming year. This article is meant to provide a brief summary of those issues....more
The IRS recently issued Notice 2021-26, which provides guidance related to certain pandemic relief provisions including carry-overs and extended grace periods which impact dependent care assistance programs (DCAPs) provided...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has published Notice 2021-26 to provide answers regarding the taxability of benefits received in 2021 and 2022 under a dependent care assistance program (DCAP) that permits carryovers or...more
On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”) into law. Under ARPA, certain employees and their dependents who lost group health coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the...more
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) contained temporary relief measures aimed at addressing unused contributions to health flexible spending accounts (FSA) and dependent care assistance programs (DCAP). On...more
Much of the previous relief that had been granted to cafeteria plans during the COVID-19 pandemic was set to expire after 2020. In late December, though, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA), which...more
Following up on changes to flexible spending accounts (FSAs) implemented by the December 2020 budget bill (the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021), the IRS provided interpretative guidance of its own in Notice 2021-15. ...more
In Notice 2021-15, the IRS provides many answers to questions regarding the temporary special rules introduced as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) for health flexible spending accounts (health FSAs) and...more
On February 18, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued clarifying guidance on the temporary special rules for health flexible spending arrangements (FSAs) and dependent care assistance programs (DCAPs) under Internal...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued Notice 2021-15 to clarify certain aspects of the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (the Act), and to extend cafeteria plan election flexibility in 2021...more
Thanks to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”), employers with health flexible spending accounts (“HFSAs”) and dependent care flexible spending accounts (“DFSAs”) may adopt temporary liberalized rules to help...more
President Donald Trump signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the Omnibus Bill) on December 27, 2020. The Omnibus Bill has received a great deal of media coverage due to its massive size (nearly 6,000...more
As part of the COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress earlier this week, the federal government expands on earlier relief issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for health and dependent care flexible spending...more
Summary - COVID-19 has dominated the agenda for health and welfare benefits in 2020. From suspended deadlines to mid-year election changes to enhanced cost-free coverage, the pandemic has resulted in significant changes to...more
This chronology traces the major ongoing relief provided by legislation, regulatory action, and other agency guidance to assist ERISA plan participants, fiduciaries, and sponsors during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic through...more
Carlton Fields tax attorney Lowell Walters discusses IRS Notice 2020-29, which permits 2020 cafeteria plan election changes, and what it means for group health plan sponsors with employees affected by COVID-19....more
On May 12, the IRS issued Notice 2020-29 “COVID-19 Guidance Under Section 125 Cafeteria Plans and Related to High Deductible Health Plans” and Notice 2020-33 “Section 125 Cafeteria Plans – Modification of Permissive Carryover...more
The IRS recently published two items of guidance to allow temporary changes to cafeteria plans. As a result of the guidance, employers may allow employees to make mid-year benefit election changes to respond to changed...more
On May 12, 2020, the IRS issued Notice 2020-29, which adds flexibility to the rules governing cafeteria plans under Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code. As with other benefits-related guidance issued in connection with...more
Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton are producing a series of podcasts to discuss employee benefits, executive compensation, and labor and employment issues that employers are confronting in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,...more
The legislative and regulatory changes for employee benefit plans in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic are coming in almost daily, which can make it difficult for employers to determine where to start in addressing these...more
On the latest episode of Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion, host Brydon DeWitt discusses new opportunities that the IRS and COVID-19 legislative relief have created for health flexible spending and cafeteria plans....more
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Congress and the IRS have provided more flexibility and expanded opportunities for employees to utilize health flexible spending arrangements and to adjust cafeteria plan elections. ...more