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Actuaries Unlimited, Inc.
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Introduction to Qualified Tuition Programs (529 Plans)
January 20, 2016 WEBCAST
(Lorman Education Services)

Inheriting an IRA or Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan
January 26, 2016 WEBCAST
(Lorman Education Services)

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[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Draft Publication 535: 2015 Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction Worksheet (PDF)
"You may have to use the worksheets in Publication 974 instead of this worksheet if the insurance plan established, or considered to be established, under your business was obtained through the Health Insurance Marketplace and you are claiming the premium tax credit." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Publication 5164-A: Test Package for Electronic Filers of ACA Information Returns (AIR) (Tax Year 2015, Phase I) (PDF)
24 pages; dated Oct. 2015, posted online Dec. 17, 2015. "[This publication] contains general and program specific testing information for use with ACA Assurance Testing System (AATS).... Software Developers are required annually to pass pre-defined AATS submissions and test scenarios for the forms that they will support. Transmitters and Issuers are required to pass communication tests for the forms they will file.... This publication is for the AATS testing beginning November 2015. A more robust AATS environment will be available in January 2016. This publication will be updated prior to the availability of this improved AATS environment. The more robust environment will provide additional improved error messages for business rule execution errors and will not use the character-by-character comparison tool for submission evaluation." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of CMS FAQs on Impact of the PACE Act on State Small Group Expansion (PDF)
Dated Dec. 17, 2015. "What constitutes a State election to extend the definition of small employer? ... [M]ay States allow carriers to modify their rate filings for small group coverage for 2016? ... Does the enactment of the PACE Act affect the counting methodologies to be used by the SHOP ... and for purposes of the medical loss ratio (MLR), risk adjustment, and risk corridors programs? ... How does the PACE Act impact employer size for MLR, risk corridors, and risk adjustment reporting purposes?" (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS])  

[Guidance Overview]

Potential Year-End Amendment Required for Cafeteria Plans
"[IRS Notice 2015-86] confirms that Obergefell has minimal or no impact on most types of plans because of previously required same-sex marriage plan changes resulting from the United States v. Windsor decision. However, the IRS identified and provided guidance on a situation unique to cafeteria plans ... Employers who, in response to Obergefell, began providing coverage midyear under their cafeteria plan to the same-sex spouses of their employees, may need to amend their cafeteria plans by December 31, 2015." (Choate Hall & Stewart LLP)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Releases Final Rule on Premium Tax Credits, Along with Notice Addressing Employer Coverage
"[Notice 2015-87] addresses a range of issues relating to the ACA and employer coverage, elaborating on some issues addressed by the final rule. Many of the questions it raises elaborate on IRS Notice 2013-54 ... The notice states that a number of these issues will be addressed by future rulemaking and requests comments. It clarifies existing requirements as to some issues and allows plans a grace period before employers must come into compliance. The notice also, however, allows employees to claim the benefit of some of the requirements even though employers have not yet come into compliance." (Timothy Jost, in Health Affairs)  

[Advert.]

Weight Loss at the Workplace: Legal Issues in Reducing Health Care Costs and Promoting Wellness

January 28 webinar - Learn about issues to identify and address when formulating and implementing a corporate wellness program that is aimed at weight loss. BenefitsLink discount.

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Health Care Tax Tip 2015-83: Health Insurance Providers Must Report Certain Information to the IRS and Covered Individuals
"Taxpayers will use this information, which will be provided on Form 1095-B, Health Coverage Information Return or Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage, when they file their tax returns to verify the months that they had minimum essential coverage and satisfied the individual shared responsibility provision. The IRS will use the information on the statements to verify the months of the individual's coverage." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

New York City Establishes Office of Labor Standards, Issues Proposed Amendments to Rules for Paid Sick Leave
"Should the rules be enacted as drafted, they would affect the Act as follows: ... [1] [Permit] employers ... to set an initial minimum use of sick leave of four hours.... [2] [P]ermit employers to set fixed periods of 30 minutes or less that sick time must be used in when it exceeds the employer's required minimum increment.... [3] Explicitly prohibit employers from requiring employees to appear in person or provide any document prior to using sick time when the need to use sick time is not foreseeable.... [4] Clarify the calculation of rate of pay of paid sick time for employees paid on a piecework basis." (Fox Rothschild LLP)  

Rethinking the Cadillac Tax: A More Equitable Way to Encourage 'Chevy' Consumption
"Employer spending on premiums is currently excluded from income and payroll taxes. Economists argue that this encourages overconsumption of health care, favors high-income workers, and reduces federal revenue. This issue brief suggests that the Cadillac tax is a 'blunt instrument' for addressing these concerns because it will affect workers on a rolling timetable, does relatively little to address the regressive nature of the current exclusion, and may penalize firms and workers for cost variation that is outside their control. Replacing the current exclusion with tax credits for employer coverage that scale inversely with income might allow for regional adjustments in health care costs and eliminate aspects of the tax exclusion that favor high-income over low-income workers." (The Commonwealth Fund)  

Budget Deal Takes a Bite Out of ACA: Beginning of the End of the Cadillac Tax, and Other Tax Moratoriums
"The Cadillac Tax, set to begin in 2018, is now delayed to 2020.... This two-year delay means that health plans (ultimately insureds) get to keep about $3 billion more of their money in 2018 and another $6 billion in 2019 according to the [CBO].... The Health Insurance Provider Tax and Medical Device Tax won't be collected in 2017 as part of a one year moratorium.... Permanently nixing all three taxes (Cadillac, insurer and medical device) would save taxpayers at least $253 billion through 2025 ... This spending bill will, once again, limit funding of the risk corridor program to the fees that the program collects from insurers that have excess profits." (Benefit Revolution)  

Another ACA Issue to Consider: Enhanced Health Benefits for Executives
"The [ACA] now extends [the Section 105(h)] ban on discrimination [to] insured group health plans.... [R]egulations are now expected to be issued by the IRS sometime during 2016.... Employers with either self-insured or fully insured plans should avoid ... [1] Offering executives free, subsidized or enhanced health coverage; [2] Providing health coverage only to management employees ... [3] Providing benefits to dependents of highly paid executives that are not available on equivalent terms to dependents of other covered employees; [4] Offering continued group health coverage (other than as required by COBRA) to departing executives as part of a severance package." (The Retirement Plan Blog)  

Understanding Why Employer Costs for Benefits Are Rising Slowly
"[T]otal premium grew 21.6 percent over the six years, 2011 through 2016. However, the employee's share of premium grew by 30.1 percent, versus just 19.2 percent for the employer.... Even more substantial is the growth in [employee] out-of-pocket costs: 70.7 percent over the period!" (National Center for Policy Analysis Health Policy Blog)  

HHS OCR to Increase HIPAA Audits in Early 2016
"The [HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR)] Director ... has repeatedly stated in the past few months that the Phase 2 audits will begin in early 2016.... It is projected that 200 desk audits and 24 on-site audits will be completed by the end of 2016. An update to the audit protocol from 2011-2012 has been promised but has yet to be published. However, it is expected to include the HITECH laws and emphasize breach notification, patient access to ePHI, and compliance with other patient rights.... It is also expected that many business associates will be included in the audit." (Bryan Cave LLP)  

Safe Harbor Ends December 31, 2015 for Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law
"The Sick Time Law provided a transition period, which provided employers with pre-existing paid sick time policies with a five month window to comport their policies with the strictures of the new law.... On or before January 1, 2016, all employers operating under this safe harbor provision must adjust their policies providing paid time off/paid sick leave to conform [with the law]." (Mintz Levin)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Releases Advice Addressing Section 162(m) and CFO Compensation of Smaller Reporting Companies
"Like smaller reporting companies, emerging growth companies (EGCs) are also entitled to rely on the limited disclosure rules in Item 402(m) of Regulation S-K. [IRS Chief Counsel Memorandum 2015 43003], however, does not address the applicability of its conclusion to EGCs. In addition, and most notably, the [CCA memorandum] does not address how [its] conclusion ... impacts the deductibility of compensation paid to a smaller reporting company's (or an EGC's) PFO before the release of this memorandum." (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP)  

Lockton Dunning Benefits Announces Leigh Harris as Vice President
Lockton

Manning & Napier Announces Agreement to Acquire Majority Interest in Rainier Investment Management, LLC
Manning & Napier, Inc.

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services Hires Scott Schaerer As Vice President, Total Retirement Solutions, in Pacific Northwest
John Hancock Retirement Plan Services

J.P. Morgan to Pay $267 Million for Disclosure Failures
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Secretary of Labor Perez Appoints New Members, Leadership for 2016 ERISA Advisory Council
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

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