Increased DCAP limit amendment deadline

[Belgarath]

Normally, for 2026, the plan would need to be amended to allow the increased limit by 12/31/2025? Has there been any guidance on allowing a later amendment date, due to the fact that the legislation only passed this Summer? I haven't seen anything. Doesn't really matter to me, as I don't do cafeteria plan amendments, but just curious.

[Peter Gulia]

Unlike some recent years’ tax laws for which CCH/Wolters Kluwer decided against publishing a “Law, Explanation & Analysis” book, they published this on the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”. In it, I see nothing about a remedial-amendment grace.

A “written plan” for an employer’s dependent care assistance program might have expressed a limit not as a dollar amount but rather by reference to Internal Revenue Code § 129(a)(2)(A). If so, there might be no need to edit the written plan.

But if some change is needed, how long does it take? Two-tenths of an hour? (One to write the amendment or edit the restatement, and another one-tenth to email it to the client.)

If a service provider does § 129 plan documents for dozens, hundreds, or thousands of clients, might one use software to send the change quickly?

Further, some employers treat a written explanation given to employees as also the “written plan” § 129 calls for. If an employer’s plan will provide or allow $7,500 for 2026, the employer will want to tell its employees that good news. Some communicated this in open-enrollment materials.