regulatory and legislative

The U.S. House of Representatives passed by a 417-1 margin on Thursday, May 28, the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020. This legislation would modify certain core terms of this Small Business Administration (SBA) emergency lending program. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law on March 27, 2020. Under the program, qualifying small businesses may apply for loans from the SBA to retain employees on their payrolls, and—especially attractive to business owners—the loans are forgiven if certain conditions are met.

As provided in the CARES Act, PPP loans taken to cover 8 weeks of program-eligible expenses can be forgiven (no repayment required). Although mortgage, rent, and other business expenses are included, to be eligible for forgiveness, 75 percent of a loan amount must—under current rules—be used for employee payroll expenses. Certain employee benefits, including defined contribution and defined benefit plan employer contributions, health insurance benefits (including premium payments), and certain employee leave benefits can be considered payroll expenses.

Today’s House-passed legislation would extend the 8-week period to 24 weeks, and would change the 75 percent payroll requirement to 60 percent.

The legislation would also relax certain loan forgiveness provisions in recognition that an employer may be unable to rehire some former employees or to find similarly qualified employees. Loan amounts not forgiven could be repaid over a period of 5 years instead of 2 years as under current rules.

Members of the U.S. Senate have been discussing a similar bill, one said to expand the 8-week period to 16, not 24 weeks. If the Senate is unable to pass its version of PPP revisions this week, which seems likely, its bill could be taken up when the Senate returns to Washington, D.C., next week.

The House of Representatives late Friday passed H.R. 6800, the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, providing additional aid to many who are adversely affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The bill also contained non-COVID-19-related provisions considered likely to prove controversial in the Senate.

Unlike the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—both of which moved fairly rapidly through Congress—the HEROES Act has been called “dead on arrival” by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who—with Republican colleagues—envisions a much less comprehensive bill. Sen. McConnell has also expressed a desire to move slowly and gauge the effectiveness of earlier relief. Most expect no additional COVID-19-related legislation to be enacted before sometime in June.

As announced last week, the House bill contains provisions for the following.

• Continued financial assistance to unemployed workers
• Financial assistance to state, local, tribal, and territorial government entities
• Waiver of 2019 required minimum distributions (RMDs)
• Waiver of the 60-day and one-rollover-per-12-month rules for otherwise-required RMDs waived for 2019 and 2020
• Amendments to the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act
• Relief for participants in health flexible spending arrangements (FSAs)
• Codifying the ability of employers to deduct certain expenses covered by loans that are forgiven under the SBA Paycheck Protection Program
• Providing money purchase pension plans the early distribution and loan relief that the CARES Act provided to other qualified retirement plans
• A new retirement “composite plan,” with features that include those of 401(k) and defined benefit (DB) pension plan
• Relief for multiemployer (collectively-bargained) DB pension plans
• Amortization relief for single employer DB pension plans
• Further funding relief (beyond that provided by the SECURE Act) to certain community newspaper DB plans
• Aid to certain federal agencies affected by the pandemic, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Interior, Health and Human Services, Labor, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Education
• Enhanced Medicare and Medicaid benefits
• Medical supply chain enhancement
• Testing and reporting enhancement
• National strategic stockpile for pandemic response
• Bankruptcy protections for homeowners
• Certain student loan relief and protections
• Additional aid to veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Federal election early and by-mail voting procedure

Published in today’s Federal Register are final regulations issued by the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) that provide an additional safe harbor for ERISA retirement plans to deliver DOL-required disclosures by electronic means. A pre-publication version was released by EBSA on May 21. (The regulations’ preamble notes that the agency has chosen not to extend the guidance to welfare benefit plans at this time.)

These regulations become effective 60 days from today’s publication date. The EBSA noted in the guidance, however, that retirement plans may rely on these regulations immediately; no enforcement action will be taken against a plan for premature reliance due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Scheduled for publication in the May 27th Federal Register are final regulations on default electronic delivery of retirement plan disclosures. These final regulations, issued by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), provide an additional safe harbor that may enhance the ability of plan administrators and their service providers to deliver DOL-required disclosures to participants and beneficiaries of ERISA plans by electronic means.

An accompanying News Release and EBSA Fact Sheet cites the presidential Executive Order of August, 2018, which directed the agency—in part—“to focus on reducing the costs and burdens that retirement plan disclosures impose on employers and others.” Proposed regulations were issued in October 2019, and public comments solicited at that time contributed to shaping these final regulations.

This guidance officially becomes effective 60 days following publication in the Federal Register. But the EBSA Fact Sheet notes that retirement plans may rely on these regulations immediately; no enforcement action will be taken against a plan for such premature reliance due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (The regulations’ preamble notes that the agency has chosen not to extend the guidance to welfare benefit plans at this time.)

Following are selected observations from an initial review of the final regulations and EBSA Fact Sheet.

The new safe harbor
The electronic delivery safe harbor can be satisfied by either of two means.

• Website posting: A plan administrator is allowed to post covered documents (documents required to be furnished by ERISA Title 1 plans) on a website if appropriate notification of Internet availability is furnished to the electronic addresses of covered individuals.
• Email delivery: A plan administrator may send covered documents directly to the electronic addresses of covered individuals, with the covered documents either in the body of the email or as an attachment to the email.

First step to e-delivery is on paper
As in the proposed regulations, a plan administrator intending to deliver some, or all, covered documents electronically must first notify participants—in a paper communication—of this intention.

Paper option remains
Not unexpected, recipients can opt out of receiving covered documents electronically and receive them in paper form, without charge. However, plan administrators need not (but may) offer recipients a “pick and choose” option to receive some documents in paper form and some electronically; the plan can require that an opt-out be “global;” (all or nothing). Conversely, a plan that uses electronic means to deliver some covered documents need not use electronic means for all.

Combining notices of Internet document postings
Certain notices of Internet postings can be combined in a single annual notice of Internet availability (NOIA), including the following.

• Summary Plan Description (SPD)
• Documents that must be provided annually; (e.g., Summary Annual Report (SAR))
• Other documents authorized by the Secretary of Labor
• Notices required by the Internal Revenue Code if authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury; (e.g., automatic contribution arrangement (ACA) notice)

Flexibility in definition of “website”
The final regulations acknowledge the importance of including new and developing technologies in applying the guidance, as long as the safe harbor requirements can be met. Mobile applications qualify.

Informing participants of document posting
If covered documents are to be posted to a website, recipients must be able to receive a plan’s NOIA. An electronic address to which a NOIA is sent may be an email address. If it is a phone number, it must be capable of receiving written/text messages (plan administrators must confirm this). Delivery of a NOIA by voice message does not meet this requirement.

Availability of web-posted documents
A covered document posted to a plan’s website must remain there at least one year, or—if longer—until superseded (replaced by) an updated version of the same document.

Document description accompanying a NOIA
A NOIA alerting a participant to an Internet document posting need not include a separate description of the document, if the document’s name—included in the NOIA—would reasonably convey the nature of the document. If not (e.g., a blackout notice), a description of the document being posted to the Internet is required.

Readability
Detailed guidelines for readability in the proposed regulations (using the Flesch reading ease score) were removed, and are not included in the final regulations. The final regulations more simply require that communications under this guidance be “written in a manner calculated to be understood by the average plan participant.”

Accessing and Understanding
The plan administrator has no affirmative obligation under the final regulations to monitor whether covered individuals have visited a website to view posted information. Unaddressed—but noted, in reference to a recent ERISA court case—is the issue of whether a recipient has read, understood, and has “actual knowledge” of the information posted.

Special rule for severance from employment from plan sponsor
Procedures should be in place to ensure that a plan administrator will continue to have a valid electronic address to which notices can be provided after severance from employment.

Transition relief, prior guidance superseded
For an 18-month period following the effective date of these final regulations, retirement plans can also rely on prior guidance for the delivery of certain covered disclosures. This guidance includes Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2006-003, FAB 2008-003 (Q&A 7), and Technical Release 2011-03R. Thereafter, the relevant portions of the prior guidance are superseded by the final regulations.

Reasonable procedures for compliance
These final regulations add “technical maintenance” of websites as a circumstance that warrants consideration of facts and circumstances, when—for a reasonable amount of time—disclosure documents may be unavailable to a recipient.

In addition to details provided in this announcement, a Washington Pulse is being prepared, and will be posted to FuturePlan News.

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has issued a pre-publication version of highly-anticipated final regulations on default electronic delivery of retirement plan disclosures. These regulations become effective 60 days following their publication in the Federal Register, currently scheduled for Wednesday, May 27.

Retirement plan administrators and service providers have been awaiting these final regulations since they were issued in proposed form in October 2019. This guidance is expected to enhance the ability of retirement plans and their service providers to deliver required disclosures to participants and beneficiaries by electronic means.   

The House of Representatives late Friday passed H.R. 6800, the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, providing additional aid to many who are adversely affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The bill also contained non-COVID-19-related provisions considered likely to prove controversial in the Senate.

During the last few months, the Department of Labor (DOL), Treasury Department, and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) have jointly issued multiple pieces of guidance intended to provide much needed relief to those suffering economic hardships from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In this article, we’ll explain how the most recent relief affects employee welfare benefit plans.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has issued Statement of Auditing Standards (SAS) Number 141, which provides for a delay in effective dates for several SAS’s, including SAS 136, Forming an Opinion and Reporting on Financial Statements of Employee Benefit Plans Subject to ERISA.

In an atmosphere more partisan than earlier coronavirus relief efforts, the Democratic caucus of the House of Representatives has released a bill to fund another round of assistance as the nation attempts to cope with the health and economic effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This legislation, as yet unnumbered, is being referred to as the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act.

The IRS has issued news release OR-2020-01, announcing an extension of time to complete certain time-sensitive tax-related acts as a result of storms, flooding, mudslides, and landslides in Oregon. At this time, the only area to which the relief applies is Umatilla County, as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Under this guidance, certain tax-related acts with deadlines falling on or after February 5, 2020, and before April 1, 2020, are extended through July 15, 2020. (This guidance is in addition to the nationwide coronavirus-related relief already available to taxpayers for time-sensitive tax act completions that are due on or after April 1, 2020, and before July 15, 2020, which are extended through July 15.)

OR-2020-01 specifically notes that this extension applies to IRA contributions, as well as to the numerous time-sensitive acts described in Treasury Regulation 301.7508A-1(c)(1). These acts include completion of rollovers or recharacterizations, correction of certain excess contributions, making plan loan payments, filing Form 5500, and certain other acts under this regulation.

This relief applies specifically to residents of the identified area, to those whose businesses or records necessary to meet a covered deadline are located there, and to certain relief workers providing assistance following the disaster events. Any individual visiting a covered disaster area who is injured or killed as a result of the events is also entitled to deadline relief.

Affected taxpayers who reside, or have a business located, outside the covered disaster area are required to call the IRS disaster hotline at 1-866-562-5227 to request relief.