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Employee Benefits Jobs
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Webcasts and Conferences
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[Guidance Overview]
Proposed Regs Modify Earlier Proposal to Treat Limited Wraparound Coverage as Excepted Benefit
"These proposed regulations -- which would operate as a pilot program -- would apply to limited wraparound coverage that is first offered no later than December 31, 2017 and that ends three years after it is first offered ... [T]he wraparound coverage would have to satisfy specified requirements ... While these proposed regulations help clarify the intended purpose of the exception, they contain no provision for reliance.... [E]mployers interested in this concept would be well-advised to wait for final regulations before they adopt it."
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)
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[Guidance Overview]
Expatriate Plans Exempted from Many ACA Provisions
"Although the exemption is extensive, expatriate plans must continue to meet certain ACA requirements.... [1] The employer mandate continues to apply, but the coverage provided by an expatriate plan will be deemed to be minimum essential coverage for purposes of complying with the mandate (and for purposes of the individual mandate). [2] Reporting requirements relating to the employer and individual mandates will apply, although electronic distribution of applicable forms will be permitted without participant consent. [3] The Cadillac tax, scheduled to take effect in 2018, will apply to certain foreign nationals working in the United States. [4] If the expatriate plan covers dependents, it must generally provide coverage up to age 26."
(Ballard Spahr LLP)
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[Guidance Overview]
Proposed Regs, Revised Template, and Other Guidance Make Changes to SBC Requirement
"[T]he preamble to the proposed regulations notes that shortening the SBC template would allow plans more flexibility to add information, such as describing the effect of a health FSA or HRA, or reflecting cost-sharing differences based on participation in a wellness program (so long as the total length of the SBC does not exceed the statutory limit of four double-sided pages). Comments are specifically requested regarding plans that have difficulty providing the required information in the specified format, and what accommodations may be appropriate for those plans. (The comment period ends March 2, 2015.)"
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Explains Tax Reporting for Retroactive Increase in 2014 Qualified Transportation Benefits
"Employers who operated their qualified transportation plans on the assumption that transit parity would be restored retroactively have once again been rewarded. Those who treated excess transit benefits as income and wages for 2014 must now move quickly, especially if they have not yet filed Form 941 and want to take advantage of the special administrative procedure. Employers may also need to modify or correct their Form W-2s as explained in [Notice 2015-02]."
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)
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[Guidance Overview]
Transit Benefits: New Guidance from the Feds, New Mandate from NYC (PDF)
"Some salary reduction transit/commuter benefit plans allow employees to contribute above the maximum pretax limit, but provide that any amount above the pretax limit will be deducted after-tax. It is possible that the retroactive increase in the transit/commuter benefit limit could affect employees who reduced their salaries in excess of $130 per month in 2014... Beginning in 2016, employers with 20 or more full-time employees in New York City are required to allow full-time employees in New York City to reduce their salaries on a pretax basis to pay for transit costs."
(Lockton)
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California Governor's Plan to Eliminate Retiree Health Care Debt
"Gov. Brown wants state workers to begin paying half the cost of their future retiree health care -- a big change for workers making no payments for coverage that can pay 100 percent of the premium for a retiree and 90 percent for their dependents. The governor also wants state workers to be given the option of a lower-cost health insurance plan with higher deductibles. The state would contribute to a tax-deferred savings account to help cover out-of-pocket costs not covered by the plan. More funding and lower premium costs are key parts of a plan to eliminate a growing debt or 'unfunded liability' for state worker retiree health care, now estimated to be $72 billion over the next 30 years."
(Calpensions)
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[Opinion]
What Happened in Vermont: Implications of the Pullback from Single Payer
"From the outset, [Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin's] team embraced an Accountable Care Organization payment strategy that would enroll most Vermonters in large hospital-based, HMO-like organizations that would be overseen by a 'designated entity' -- presumably Blue Cross. To-date, ACOs have shown little or no overall cost savings, have increased administrative costs, and have driven hospitals to merge and gobble up physician practices.... The plan never envisioned including all Vermonters in a single plan, instead retaining multiple payers."
(Physicians for a National Health Program [PNHP])
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Legislative Focus on Pay Ratio and Taxation Expected to Intensify
"On the first day of the 114th Congress, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reintroduced the CEO/Employee Pay Fairness Act, indicating that the tax treatment of executive compensation will again be a potential flashpoint. The bill would prevent companies from deducting compensation for senior executives and other employees in excess of $1 million unless they provide pay increases to U.S. employees that on average exceed average increases in inflation and productivity growth. It is also expected that legislation to limit or eliminate nonqualified deferred compensation will be introduced, although it is not clear how far either proposal will go under Republican control."
(HR Policy Association)
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Revises Procedures for Determination Letter Processing for 2015
"The announcement sends two important messages to plan sponsors and their advisors. First, be sure each determination letter filing is complete and satisfies all procedural requirements in Revenue Procedure 2015-6. Second, file applications early and respond promptly to any IRS requests -- both to prevent application files from being closed and, more importantly, to avoid running out the clock on the remedial amendment cycle."
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Updates Procedures for Letter Rulings, Determination Letters, and Other Guidance
"Internal Revenue Bulletin 2015-1 contains the annual update and restatement of eight IRS revenue procedures governing letter rulings, determination letters, and other IRS guidance, including guidance about employee plans. Each revenue procedure supersedes its 2014 counterpart.... No-ruling areas added to the 2015 list include: [1] whether there has been a partial termination of an employee plan ... [2] whether a plan is a governmental plan; [3] whether an arrangement is a specified health insurance policy or an applicable self-insured health plan for purposes of the PCOR fees to fund research on patient-centered outcomes; [4] whether an employer is required to make an assessable payment under the employer shared responsibility rules; and
[5] whether an insured group health plan satisfies the nondiscrimination requirements added by health care reform."
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)
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Press Releases
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