The wide-ranging SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“SECURE 2.0”) radically altered the retirement plan landscape, and is likely to create a significant number of action items for sponsors of retirement plans for tax-exempt entities and...more
If you thought that church plan litigation was effectively over after the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the traditional interpretation of the ERISA church plan definition in its 2017 decision in Advocate Health Care...more
Many of the provisions of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act”) do not apply to non-electing church plans, but some do, notably those dealing with certain 403(b)(9) plans and...more
On Thursday, December 19, the Senate passed two spending bills to fund the government through September 30, 2020, one of which (H.R. 1865, the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020” or the “Act”) contains the...more
One great about the Internal Revenue Service is that they tell us what they’re up to. They will tell us what their priorities on, so we will know what they will concentrate on. It’s best as a retirement plan provider to see...more
Generally, a 403(b) plan is a retirement planning program whereby a public school or tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization (including churches) makes contributions for their employees (and certain ministers) to specific types of...more
Since 2016, the Internal Revenue Service Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division (TE/GE) has followed a practice of posting “issue snapshots” – technical summaries of tax issues provided for reference purposes – from time...more
Timely Topics - By Shannon B. Hartsfield - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Jan. 18, 2018, the creation of a new division within its Office for Civil Rights (OCR). OCR is described as...more
Where is your PHI Data Traveling Today? With most vendors offering and pushing cloud computing solutions and offsite data backup, or guaranteeing offsite backup of data they process for you, many HIPAA covered entities and...more
This year’s Supreme Court term may be more memorable for the intrigue and political drama taking place outside the Court than the import of the decisions the Court issued. On April 10, 2017, Judge Neil Gorsuch of the Tenth...more
In a much-anticipated ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 5 that retirement plans maintained by church-affiliated organizations can be exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), regardless of...more
Timely Topics - A draft executive order of President Donald Trump relating to religious freedom proposes several material changes to federal law. First, it would require the executive branches to recognize a broad scope...more
In a decision that may have profound consequences for the funding and continued operation of defined benefit retirement plans covering employees at religiously affiliated organizations, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to...more
On December 2, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States granted the petitions for writs of certiorari to Advocate Health Care, et al. v. Stapleton, Maria, et al., St. Peter’s Healthcare, et al. v. Kaplan, Laurence and...more
The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in seven cases on Friday afternoon: Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., No. 15-1189: 1) Whether a "conditional sale" that transfers title to...more