An Interim Final Rule (IFR) published by the Department of Labor (DOL) took effect September 18, 2021. The IFR pertains to the information required by § 105 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA) to be provided on pension benefit statements. This regulation reflects amendments made by the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (“SECURE Act”) to ERISA § Read More

The IRS uses “Issue Snapshots” to analyze tax issues and provide links to additional resources such as Tax Code sections and regulations, revenue rulings, and IRS webpages. The IRS does not use issue snapshots as a comprehensive discussion of all issues related to a covered topic. Snapshots do not limit the IRS’s ability to use other approaches in examinations. The IRS has updated its “Issue Snapshot” summarizing Read More

  As the COBRA premium subsidy provided under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) expired on September 30, 2021, the IRS issued a second set of FAQs in Notice 2021-46 (the “Notice”) to supplement prior guidance while providing specific answers to some questions that were previously unanswered.  Some of the guidance provided in the Notice includes the following: Eligibility for COBRA Subsidy During Read More

As summer passed into its final months, the Senate passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the “Act”). While the Act’s $1 trillion in allocations tackles a large number of issues, it contains specific provisions covering pension interest rates and the employee retention tax credit. The White House stated that “[t]he bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will grow the economy, enhance our Read More

For decades, many Hollywood actors and actresses have battled the industry to assert their rights and defend themselves from exploitation. In December of 2020, actor Ed Asner and nine other members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) sued the trustees of their union’s health care plan. In August, making similar allegations to those contained in Asner’s Read More

  Two trade groups recently offered support to Cornell University after the academic institution settled a class-action lawsuit brought by participants in Cornell’s retirement program. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Benefits Council filed an amici curiae (friend of the court) brief in Cunningham et al. v. Cornell University et al., case number 21-88 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Read More

As 2020 ended, the No Surprises Act (NSA) was signed into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 to remedy problems associated with surprise medical billing. The NSA, armed with $1.4 trillion in spending, goes into effect on January 1, 2022. In the summer of 2021, barely in time to meet a statutory deadline set by Congress, the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury, Read More

In Halperin v. Richards, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 22348, 2021 WL 3184305 (7th Cir., No. 20-2793, July 28, 2021), the Seventh Circuit held that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, (ERISA), does not preempt certain state law claims against directors and officers. The court reasoned that ERISA’s text and purpose contemplate parallel corporate state-law liability by executives who act as “dual hat” Read More

On July 26, 2021, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Angus King (I-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME) sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) encouraging the agency to support policies that will allow Americans to personally import certain prescription drugs from Canada. In the letter, the senators noted that, “Americans, on average, pay the highest prescription drug Read More

Recently, the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2021-30 to update its guidance on the correction program under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS). Under EPCRS, plan sponsors are permitted to correct failures using one of three correction methods: the Self-Correction Program (SCP), the Voluntary Correction Program (VCP), and the Audit Closing Agreement Program (“Audit CAP”). Rev. Proc. 2021-30 Read More