CARES ACt Amendment - Extended or Not?

So I keep getting all of these email blasts about CARES Act Amendments being extended.  But apparently that only applies to the RMD waivers and not all the loan/distriubtion rules. Why in the world would anyone do half of a CARES Act Amendment?

This must be an oversight? Has anyone confirmed that this was intentional?  This is really not an extension at all...

IRS has been busy (if a bit disorganized):

Notice 2022-53 (issued Friday 10/7) provides transition relief/extended amendment deadline for 2021 and 2022 RMDs.

Notice 2022-45 (issued September 26) provides extended amendment deadline for COVID distributions/loans (CARES/CAA)

Notice 2022-33 (issued August 3) provides extended amendment deadline for other CARES/SECURE/Miners Act provisions

Thank you Lois!  Here is an article.  Someone must have pointed out a mistake and they fixed it.  The whole CARES Act Amendment is due 12/31/2025 (apparently regardless of the plan year end).

https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/blog/irs-extends-additional-cares-act-and-disaster-relief-amendment-deadlines/

Several more articles here.

One author (at Verrill Dana) does point out that the extension is a double-edged sword:  "[M]ost retirement plans have been operated in accordance with some or all of the required and optional provisions of these laws since 2020. Further delay in the adoption of formal plan amendments will simply compound the opportunity for errors ... [C]onfusion and uncertainty may result if a plan sponsor maintains a retirement plan in misalignment with disclosure materials for an extended period."

1 hour ago, Lois Baker said:

Several more articles here.

One author (at Verrill Dana) does point out that the extension is a double-edted sword:  "[M]ost retirement plans have been operated in accordance with some or all of the required and optional provisions of these laws since 2020. Further delay in the adoption of formal plan amendments will simply compound the opportunity for errors ... [C]onfusion and uncertainty may result if a plan sponsor maintains a retirement plan in misalignment with disclosure materials for an extended period"

I think this will be the biggest issue moving forward. It's nice to have several more years to update the document, but HR departments, TPAs, recordkeepers, etc. will be reading/interpreting plan documents and SPDs for potentially five years with outdated provisions. There will likely be turnover in at least one of those roles before 2025. Then someone will have to reconstruct - in November 2025, probably - all the operational features/elections the plan used for the past five years.

Then again, it's difficult to update the plan document with any certainty until we have final rules on some of these issues. 

Well the good news (presumably) is that by the time they get to auditing the amendments in 2027 or so, all of this will be so old that no one will check :).  Now, we kept meticulous notes of who did what and I am hellbent on getting these done next summer.  But I will just point out I don;t see a lot risk here that the IRS is going to rake people over the coals about how accurate a 7 year old change was in the midst of a worldwife pandemic.  Just a hunch!

87,000 new IRS agents ... (just sayin')  😀

14 minutes ago, austin3515 said:

worldwife pandemic.

Hopefully not a Freudian slip...

I also would like to think there would be some leniency if there is SOME evidence of a reasonable attempt at compliance. It's already becoming difficult to remember how crazy things were, and the pace/confusion of all the changes. We are plodding ahead with our CARES amendments right now - no intention of waiting!

A worldwife pandemic! Everyone got married, it was a disaster!  Don't tell my wife I said this please!

4 hours ago, Lois Baker said:

87,000 new IRS agents ... (just sayin')

But they'll be hired primarily to audit and harass all the low income service industry workers, if you can believe certain political commercials, so retirement plans should be in the clear!