About long-term part-time employees, interpreting Internal Revenue Code § 401(k)(2)(D)(ii) and § 401(k)(15)

From BenefitsLink’s helpful postings of Labor and Treasury regulatory agendas:

An agenda item shows Treasury’s estimate, perhaps optimistic, that the agency would publish a notice of a proposed rulemaking by December 2023.

https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202304&RIN=1545-BQ70

If you want to send suggestions even before a proposal is published or released, the agenda item names three lawyers assigned to the project.

Great.  That gives us about a month to adjust....  Gosh, I though there would be more pressure....

Even if the Treasury department meets this agenda item’s target, it is only for a proposal, not a rule.

Even if the notice of proposed rulemaking states that taxpayers are protected in following the proposed rule, there is no assurance that systems and software would not need rework.

If a § 3(16) administrator, recordkeeper, or third-party administrator expects to provide services regarding § 401(k)(15), it might prefer to make or buy software now, using rules that are the provider’s or its software developer’s interpretations of the statute.