IRS Delays One 2022 Amendment Deadline But Not the Other

Until recently, retirement plan sponsors were required to amend their plan documents for the SECURE Act of 2019 and CARES Act of 2020 by December 31, 2022.1 Then, the IRS announced an extension of the amendment deadline until December 31, 2025, except for a portion of the CARES Act provisions, which must still be adopted by December 31, 2022.2 The extension is partly a result of the IRS’s delay in releasing final guidance interpreting the SECURE Act’s changes to beneficiary distribution rules, amongothers. Accurate and final interpretations of the new rules will enable document providers to draft accurate amendment language. 

Your document vendor should provide you with everything you need to complete both plan document amendments in a timely manner. Some of the changes under each of the acts are optional, however, so you need to know which provisions you implemented in your plan in order to complete the amendments properly.

Amendment Due by December 31, 2022

  • Plans that implemented coronavirus-related distributions and loan relief in 2020 under the CARES Act

Amendment Due by December 31, 2025

  • Qualified plans to implement the SECURE Act mandatory changes, including an increase in age for required minimum distributions (RMDs), changes to beneficiary distribution rules, and new rules for long-term part-time employee eligibility
  • Plans that implemented any SECURE Act optional changes, including qualified birth/adoption distributions and the increase in the automatic contribution maximum from 10 percent to 15 percent
  • Plans that implemented the CARES Act optional change to waive RMDs for 2020
  • Plans that implemented coronavirus-related distributions and loan relief in 2020 under the CARES Act

Remember: Your plan must be operated according to the new rules as of their effective dates or your implementation dates, regardless of when the plan document is amended. These changes should also be communicated to plan participants. With the next amendment deadline now three years away, it’s important for plan sponsors to keep track of the optional provisions they incorporated into their plan so the amendment can be completed accurately in 2025 with the appropriate effective dates.

1 Nongovernmental, non-collectively bargained, calendar-year defined contribution retirement plans
2 IRS Notice 2022-33