AimPoint Pension
|
Regional Vice President of Sales The Retirement Plan Company
|
Loan & Distribution Specialist AimPoint Pension
|
Compass
|
Bates & Company, Inc.
|
Defined Benefit Combo Cash Balance Compliance Consultant Loren D. Stark Company (LDSCO)
|
“BenefitsLink continues to be the most valuable resource we have at the firm.”
-- An attorney subscriber
Text of IRS Notice 2014-01: Cafeteria Plans, Flexible Spending Arrangements, and Health Savings Accounts -- Elections and Reimbursements for Same-Sex Spouses Following the Windsor Supreme Court Decision (PDF)
Internal Revenue Service [IRS] [Official Guidance] Dec. 16, 2013
"A cafeteria plan may treat a participant who was married to a same-sex spouse as of the date of the Windsor decision (June 26, 2013) as if the participant experienced a change in legal marital status for purposes of Treas. Reg. 1.125-4(c). Accordingly, a cafeteria plan may permit such a participant to revoke an existing election and make a new election in a manner consistent with the change in legal marital status.... A change in the tax treatment of a benefit offered under a cafeteria plan generally does not constitute a significant change in the cost of coverage for purposes of Treas. Reg. 1.125-4(f).... [F]or periods between June 26 and December 31, 2013, a cafeteria plan will not be treated as having failed to meet the requirements of section 125 or Treas. Reg. 1.125-4 solely because the plan permitted a participant with a same-sex spouse to make a mid-year election change ... as a result of the plan administrator's interpretation that the change in tax treatment of spousal health coverage arising from the Windsor decision resulted in a significant change in the cost of health coverage.... An employer that, before the end of the cafeteria plan year including December 16, 2013, receives notice that such a participant is married to the individual receiving health coverage must begin treating the amount that the employee pays for the spousal coverage as a pre-tax salary reduction under the plan no later than the later of (a) the date that a change in legal marital status would be required to be reflected for income tax withholding purposes under section 3402, or (b) a reasonable period of time after December 16, 2013.... A cafeteria plan may permit a participant's FSA, including a health, dependent care, or adoption assistance FSA, to reimburse covered expenses of the participant's same-sex spouse or the same-sex spouse's dependent that were incurred during a period beginning on a date that is no earlier than (a) the beginning of the cafeteria plan year that includes the date of the Windsor decision or (b) the date of marriage, if later."
|
Please click here to report this link if it is broken (for example, if you see a "404 File Not Found" error message after you click on the linked news item's title). |
An important word about authorship: BenefitsLink® created this link to the news item, but we are not the news item's author (unless expressly shown above). |