Guidance on the SECURE Act, missing participants and student loan payments are among the items listed on the updated 2021-2022 Priority Guidance Plan of the Treasury Department and IRS.
The updated Treasury/IRS plan released Feb. 22 sets forth guidance priorities for the 12-month period from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022. While the projects will be the focus of the department’s efforts during the plan year, the plan does not provide any deadline for completing the projects.
Overall, the guidance plan contains 193 guidance projects (13 of which had been completed by Aug. 31, 2021), addressing every major section of the Internal Revenue Code. Most of these projects do not involve the issuance of new regulations, but instead provide guidance through other means, such as:
- notices, revenue rulings and revenue procedures;
- amendments to existing regulations; and
- revocations of final, temporary proposed regulations.
The second quarter update to the plan reflects 21 guidance projects that were published or released from Sept. 1, 2021, through Dec. 31, 2021. The update also includes 11 additional projects that were not on the initial plan.
Retirement Projects
In the retirement benefits section, the plan lists 19 priority guidance projects; the section on executive compensation, health care and other benefits includes an additional 17 projects. And while some of the guidance projects have been listed previously and show that proposed regulations were issued several years earlier, the plan is intended to provide a snapshot of what Treasury and IRS have been trying to complete.
A sampling of the retirement-related projects that Treasury and IRS plan to undertake by June 30 include the following:
- Regulations updating electronic delivery rules and other guidance for providing applicable notices and making participant elections.
- Regulations relating to SECURE Act and other modifications to Section 401(a)(9). (On Feb. 23 the IRS released proposed regulations addressing RMDs.)
- Regulations relating to SECURE Act modifications to certain rules governing 401(k) plans.
- Guidance on student loan payments and qualified retirement plans and 403(b) plans.
- Guidance on missing participants, including guidance on uncashed checks.
- Regulations and related guidance on the exception to the unified plan rule for Section 413(e) multiple employer plans. (Proposed regulations under Section 413(c) were published on July 3, 2019.)
- Regulations and related guidance on closed DB plans and related matters. (Proposed regulations were published in January 2016.)
- Final regulations under Section 417(e) that update the minimum present value requirements for DB plans. (Proposed regulations were published in November 2016.)
- Regulations on mortality tables used to determine present value under Section 430 for single-employer DB plans.
- Guidance implementing changes to Sections 430, 431, and 432 and relief provided by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
- Regulations and other guidance under Section 72(t) relating to the 10% additional tax on early distributions.
