PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New Round of COVID-19 Relief Expands Assistance for Employers
Nowhere to spend child care FSA funds
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
As the year draws to a close, it is helpful for employers to pause to evaluate employee benefit plan amendment deadlines and other crucial fourth quarter considerations, including:...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
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
As discussed in our earlier LawFlash, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Act) contains certain permissible provisions plan sponsors may adopt to offer employees greater flexibility under a healthcare flexible spending...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
Section 214 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) provides a substantial amount of flexibility for the operation of health and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). The CAA did, however, leave many...more
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (the “Act”) was signed into law on December 27, 2020. Buried within its 5,593 pages is some welcome flexibility relating to 2020 and 2021 health care and dependent care Flexible...more
The Consolidated Appropriations Act (the “Act’”) was signed into law by the president on December 27, 2020, and includes significant health and welfare benefits provisions that affect group health plans and health insurance...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On December 27, 2020, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 which includes several provisions affecting employer-sponsored benefit plans, and provides voluntary relief related to...more
The president has signed into law the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, which includes several temporary special rules aimed at minimizing forfeitures and increasing the utility of health and dependent...more
Many employers have sought to leverage or make changes to their employer-sponsored benefits to address economic and health-related burdens faced by their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Until now, however, employers...more
On May 12, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2020-33 (the Notice), which increases the maximum health flexible spending account (FSA) carryover limit. The Notice also addresses a gap in existing guidance...more
In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, on May 12, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Code Section 125 (cafeteria plan) guidance (see IRS Notice 2020-29 and Notice 2020-33) that allows employers to...more
On May 12, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued two notices permitting employers to offer new opportunities for employees to change their salary reduction elections under a cafeteria plan and avoid forfeitures of...more
The IRS released two Notices this week related to cafeteria plans and flexible spending arrangements (“FSAs”). Notice 2020-29 provides relief for cafeteria plans in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, and Notice...more
The Internal Revenue Service recently issued Notices 2020-29 and 2020-33, which relax some of the rules applicable to cafeteria plans in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notice 2020-29 will apply to the vast majority of...more
On May 12, 2020, the IRS released Notice 2020-29, which provides significant flexibility for health insurance and flexible spending account election changes during 2020, and Notice 2020-33, which increases the amount that may...more
In response to the realization that many employees will have unanticipated medical and childcare challenges due to COVID-19, the IRS just provided employers with a number of optional amendments that can be made to Section 125...more
Recent guidance from the IRS modifies the long-standing “use or lose it” rule under a health flexible spending arrangement (“Health FSA”) to permit such arrangements to offer participants the opportunity to carryover up to...more
The IRS recently modified the “use-it-or-lose-it” rule for healthcare flexible spending accounts (FSAs) to permit a limited carryover of unspent funds from one plan year to the next. Effective immediately, plan sponsors may...more
Employees generally may not use contributions made to a health flexible spending account ("health FSA") in one plan year to purchase a benefit that will be provided in a subsequent plan year. This "use it or lose it" rule...more
Some cafeteria plans already contain optional grace period provisions that modify the strict “use it or lose it” rules for Health Flexible Spending Accounts (“Health FSA” or “FSA”). These grace period provisions permit FSA...more
As employers who sponsor cafeteria plans know, flexible spending accounts (FSAs) under those plans have had a “use it or lose it” rule. Under that rule, employees who participate in the spending accounts must make elections...more
On October 31, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2013-71 (Notice), which modifies the "use or lose" rule for health flexible spending accounts (health FSAs) to allow a $500 annual carryover of unused...more
On October 31, the IRS issued Notice 2013-71, modifying the long-standing “use or lose” rule for health flexible spending arrangements (FSAs). Under the new rule, employers may permit health FSA participants to carry over up...more