News

Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) recently introduced two bills aimed at providing more flexibility for the use of health savings accounts (HSAs). Senate bill 2113 proposes to expand permissible distributions from an employee’s health flexible spending arrangement or health reimbursement arrangement to the employee’s HSA. Senate bill 2099 proposes to make HSAs more broadly available by removing the requirement that individuals be enrolled in a high deductible health plan. Further details of these proposals have not yet been made available.

On June 17, 2021, the United States Supreme Court held that the plaintiffs did not have standing to pursue an action under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) because the individual mandate is unenforceable and, as such, “unenforceable language is insufficient to establish standing.” Regarding the states, the Supreme Court held that the "pocketbook injuries" cannot be traced to the government’s unlawful conduct. The Supreme Court failed to consider whether reducing the penalty to zero rendered the individual mandate unconstitutional and, in turn, if the individual mandate is unconstitutional, whether the individual mandate is severable from the remainder of the PPACA.

The IRS has released final regulations regarding the mandatory 60-day postponement of deadlines for certain time-sensitive, tax-related acts in circumstances of federally declared disasters, implemented under the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020.

The IRS has issued a news release announcing the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for Louisiana victims of severe storms and flooding. The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting May 17. The areas included in the relief are Ascension, Calcasieu, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, and Lafayette parishes.

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) has introduced the Increasing Retirement Amount Act to allow individuals without access to a workplace retirement plan to save more for retirement by providing an increased IRA contribution limit of $12,000 per year, subject to annual cost of living adjustments. The special rule would also allow catch-up contributions of up to $3,000 per year for those age 50 or older.

Ascensus is excited to present the SECURE Act Video Series. This multi-video series will provide a snapshot of retirement-related SECURE Act provisions, included in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020.

The IRS has issued a news release announcing the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for West Virginia victims of severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding. The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting February 27. In addition to extending certain tax filing and tax payment deadlines, the relief includes completion of many time-sensitive, tax-related acts described in IRS Revenue Procedure 2018-58 and Treasury Regulation 301.7508A-1(c)(1), which include filing Form 5500 for retirement plans, completing rollovers, and making retirement plan loan payments.

The IRS has issued a revised 2020 Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), intended to clarify the application of required minimum distribution (RMD) rules under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act).

Last week, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk, which includes a directive to the Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary to consider publishing, by September 2021, a proposed rule to suspend, revise, or rescind the Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investments and Fiduciary Duties Regarding Proxy Voting and Shareholder Rights final rules that were published during the Trump administration regarding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments and proxy voting by employee benefit plans.

Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), and Ben Cardin (D-MD), have introduced the Retirement Security and Savings Act of 2021, legislation that was last introduced in 2019. This bill, like the Securing a Strong Retirement Act introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this month, is intended to build on the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE) of 2019. With more than 50 provisions, this bill contains a broad set of retirement reforms under the following categories, highlights of which are enumerated below.