Workforce Bulletin

As we previously reported, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) was signed into law on March 11, 2021, requiring, among other things, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to issue its implementing regulations by July 9, 2021. As promised, PBGC issued an interim final rule, 86 Fed. Reg. 36598 (July 12, 2021) (the IFR), on a major element of the rescue plan―the Special Financial Assistance Program (SFA)―intended to provide a one-time payment to the estimated 200 most financially troubled multiemployer pension plans to help them survive and pay pensions through ...

On July 15, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) updated its Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”) by issuing Revenue Procedure 2021-30 (PDF). The EPCRS changes and revisions, which generally became effective on July 16, 2021, are beneficial to plan sponsors, participants and the retirement plan community.

The IRS has long provided a basic structure for the EPCRS and its underlying programs consisting of: (a) the Self Correction Program (“SCP”) – which allows plan sponsors to self-correct certain failures using pre-approved methods ...

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “Act”), which we detailed in a previous Advisory, requires private employers with fewer than 500 employees (“covered employers”) to provide paid sick leave (“Emergency Paid Sick Leave”) and family leave (“Public Health Emergency Leave”) for certain COVID-19 related absences and includes a tax credit for employers for the cost of the paid leave.

As covered employers prepare to meet these requirements, questions have arisen related to the payroll tax relief associated with these payments.  This update addresses ...

[Updated on April 17, 2020]

As temporary layoffs and furloughs become more prevalent during the COVID-19 outbreak, employers have been asking whether they may allow employees to take hardship distributions under their Section 401(k) plans for expenses and losses resulting from COVID-19.

Under the IRS hardship distribution final regulations, employers were permitted to add a new safe harbor hardship category that would allow an employee to take a hardship withdrawal to cover expenses and losses (including loss of income) incurred by the employee on account of a disaster declared ...

The IRS Office of Chief Counsel recently issued a memo which, in a surprise to many, concluded that the filing of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) Forms 1094-C and 1095-C (“C Forms”) does not start the statute of limitations on the Employer Shared Responsibility Payments (“ESRP”) under Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) § 4980H and, in fact, that there is no statute of limitations with respect to ESRP assessments.

In short, the ESRP is a penalty that may be assessed against “applicable large employers” (“ALEs”)[1] when, in certain circumstances, a full-time ...

Our colleague Tzvia Feiertag at Epstein Becker Green has a post on the Health Employment and Labor Blog that will be of interest to our readers in the financial services industry: “NJ Employers and Out-of-State Employers with NJ Residents Prepare: State Updates Website on Employer Reporting for New Jersey Health Insurance Mandate.”

Following is an excerpt:

As employers are wrapping up their reporting under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) for the 2018 tax year (filings of Forms 1094-B/C and 1095-C/B with the IRS are due by April 1, 2019, if filing electronically), they ...

In a recent update to the IRS’ Questions and Answers on Employer Shared Responsibility Provisions under the Affordable Care Act, the IRS has advised that it plans to issue Letter 226J informing applicable large employers (ALEs) of their potential liability for an employer shared responsibility payment for the 2015 calendar year, if any, sometime in late 2017.  The IRS plans to issue Letter 226J to an ALE if it determines that, for at least one month in the year, one or more of the ALE’s full-time employees was enrolled in a qualified health plan for which a premium tax credit (PTC) was ...

The IRS recently released the Tax Exempt and Government Entities FY 2018 Work Plan (the “2018 Work Plan”) which provides helpful information for sponsors of tax-qualified retirement plans about the focus of the IRS’ 2018 compliance efforts for employee benefit plan.  While the 2018 Work Plan is a high-level summary, it does address IRS compliance strategies for 2018 and should assist plan sponsors in administering their retirement plans.

The Work Plan provides that for fiscal year 2018, the IRS compliance strategies include examination of plans that:

1. Have transferred their ...

Our colleagues Kara M. Maciel and Jordan B. Schwartz will be joined by special guest, David Sherwyn of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration in hosting a roundtable and webinar on May 29 (1:00 p.m. ET).  This interactive simulcast event will discuss strategies and tactics that employers can implement to stay ahead of the curve and ensure compliance with many of the most pressing wage and hour issues plaguing the hospitality industry.

Topics will include:

• Using the tip credit to your advantage: tip credit, tip pooling, and service charges
• Creating valid tip ...

I recently coauthored a Client Alert, “IRS Chips Away at the FSA 'Use-or-Lose' Rule” with Jeffrey Lieberman, one of my colleagues in the Employee Benefits practice at Epstein Becker Green.

The following is an excerpt:

Under new guidance issued by the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, Section 125 cafeteria plans can be, but are not required to be, amended to allow up to a maximum of $500 of unused amounts remaining at the end of a plan year in a participant’s health flexible spending account to be carried over to the next plan year and used to reimburse the plan ...

By: Kara M. Maciel

Many restaurants include automatic gratuities on guests’ checks with large parties to ensure servers get fair tips. This method allows the restaurant to calculate an automatic gratuity or tip into the total bill, but it takes away the customer’s discretion in choosing whether and/or how much to tip the server. As a result of this removal of a customer’s voluntary act, the IRS has decided that it will separately tax automatic gratuities.

In 2012, the IRS issued a ruling to clarify earlier tax guidance on tips, particularly automatic gratuities, but ...

We recommend this recent post on the Hospitality Labor and Employment Law blog: “IRS Releases Proposed Rules on Employer's Information Reporting Requirements Under the Employer Mandate of the Affordable Care Act,” by Kara Maciel, Adam Solander, and Brandon Ge, our colleagues at Epstein Becker Green.

Following is an excerpt:

On September 5, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released two proposed rules to implement important reporting requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), which will help determine penalties under the ...

We recommend this recent post on the Hospitality Labor and Employment Law blog: “IRS Releases Proposed Rules on Employer's Information Reporting Requirements Under the Employer Mandate of the Affordable Care Act,” by Kara Maciel, Adam Solander, and Brandon Ge, our colleagues at Epstein Becker Green.

Following is an excerpt:

On September 5, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released two proposed rules to implement important reporting requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), which will help determine penalties under the ...

A recent article in Bloomberg BNA's Health Insurance Report will be of interest to financial services employers: "ACA's Employer 'Pay or Play' Mandate Delayed - What Now for Employers?" by Frank C. Morris, Jr., and Adam C. Solander, colleagues of ours, based in Epstein Becker Green's Washington, DC, office.

Following is an excerpt:

The past few weeks have changed the way that most employers will prepare for the employer ‘‘shared responsibility'' provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Over the past year or so, employers have scrambled to understand their obligations with ...

A recent article in Bloomberg BNA's Health Insurance Report will be of interest to retail industry employers: "ACA's Employer 'Pay or Play' Mandate Delayed - What Now for Employers?" by Frank C. Morris, Jr., and Adam C. Solander, colleagues of ours, based in Epstein Becker Green's Washington, DC, office. Following is an excerpt:

The past few weeks have changed the way that most employers will prepare for the employer ‘‘shared responsibility'' provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Over the past year or so, employers have scrambled to understand their obligations with ...

A recent article in Bloomberg BNA's Health Insurance Report will be of interest to hospitality industry employers: "ACA's Employer 'Pay or Play' Mandate Delayed - What Now for Employers?" by Frank C. Morris, Jr., and Adam C. Solander, colleagues of ours, based in Epstein Becker Green's Washington, DC, office. Following is an excerpt:,,

The past few weeks have changed the way that most employers will prepare for the employer ‘‘shared responsibility'' provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Over the past year or so, employers have scrambled to understand their ...

By: Kara Maciel and Adam Solander

Over a year after thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) was signed into law, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) recently released much anticipated information on issues related to the calculations of full-time and full-time equivalent employees for determining when an employer may be subject to a penalty under PPACA. In Notice 2011-36 (“Notice”), the IRS is specifically seeking employer’s comments on several of the issues by June 17, 2011. For hospitality employers, who traditionally employ a large ...