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Liz Deckman

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Seyfarth Synopsis: On August 19, 2024, the IRS issued Notice 2024-63 (the “Notice”) providing guidance for plan sponsors that wish to provide matching contributions based on eligible student loan repayments made by participants, rather than based only on elective deferrals, pursuant to the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. This post summarizes guidance under the Notice. 

Section 110 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 codified rules that permitted plan sponsors to make a matching contribution to a 401(k), 403(b), SIMPLE or governmental 457(b) plan based on a participant’s “qualified student loan payment,” in addition to matching contributions on a participant’s elective deferral contribution to the plan. These rules already took effect this year, and the IRS has now issued welcome guidance on how this provision should be implemented.Continue Reading Major SECURE 2.0 Guidance Issued: Extra Credit for Repaying Qualified Student Loans

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Seyfarth Synopsis: On March 28, 2024, Washington State’s Governor, Jay Inslee, signed into law a bill that creates a new state-run retirement program called “Washington Saves.”  Under the program, “covered employers” must give “covered employees” the opportunity to contribute a portion of their pay to an individual retirement account (“IRA”) on a pre-tax basis in order to save for retirement. 

Which Employers Must Comply With Washington Saves?

Only “covered employers” must comply with Washington Saves.  A “covered employer” is an employer that:

  • has been in business in Washington State for at least two (2) years;
  • has a physical presence in the State as of the immediately preceding calendar year;
  • does not offer a qualified retirement plan, such as a 401(a), 401(k), 403(b) plan, to their “covered employees” (employees who are at least age 18) who have been continuously employed for at least one year; and
  • employs, and at any point during the immediately preceding calendar year employed, employees working a combined minimum of 10,400 hours (which translates to approximately 5 full-time or full-time equivalent employees.)

Continue Reading Washington Saves; Washington State’s New State-Mandated Retirement Program

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Seyfarth Synopsis: As previously reported here, on December 20, 2023, the IRS issued Notice 2024-2 (the “Notice”) providing guidance on several outstanding questions related to provisions under SECURE 2.0. This blog post summarizes the guidance under the Notice for in-service distributions to terminally ill employees that qualify for a waiver from the 10%…

Seyfarth Synopsis: Adding to the holiday joy of employee benefits practitioners nationwide, yesterday the IRS issued guidance on several outstanding questions related to SECURE 2.0. At this time of year, we are especially thankful that the guidance was issued on a day other than the day before or following a national holiday.

The so-called “grab…

Seyfarth Synopsis: In August, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revived a challenge by Airlines for America (“A4A”), to San Francisco’s Healthy Airport Ordinance (the “Ordinance”), which requires airlines that use the San Francisco International Airport, which the City runs, to provide enhanced health plan benefits to the airlines’ employees and their dependents.  A4A, an…

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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…

A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit that challenged the Washington Long-Term Cares Act (“Cares Act”), ruling that because the Cares Act is not established or maintained by an employer and/or employee organization, it is not an employee benefit plan and therefore not governed or preempted by ERISA. The Court also held that…

Seyfarth Synopsis: After announcing a moratorium on the State’s collection of the Washington Cares Fund long term care (“LTC”) payroll tax from employers on December 17, 2021, Governor Inslee signed into law House Bills 1732 and 1733 on Thursday. The bills formally delay the program until July 1, 2023, and implement several changes that are…