On April 4, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service issued IRS Notice 2014-19 providing guidance with respect to amending qualified retirement plans to implement the United States Supreme Court’s decision regarding same-sex marriages in United States v. Windsor, 133 S Ct. 2675 (2013). Plan sponsors should be aware that the deadline to amend their qualified retirement plans for Windsor is the later of: (i) the otherwise applicable deadline for adopting plan amendments under prior IRS guidance or (ii) December 31, 2014. For governmental qualified retirement plans, the deadline is the close of the first regular legislative session that ends after December 31, 2014. As a practical matter, for most non-governmental qualified retirement plans, the deadline is December 31, 2014. A number of decisions must be made when amending benefit plans to implement Windsor, so plan sponsors should act promptly in reviewing all of their benefit plans (including but not limited to pension, profit sharing and 401(k) plans, health and welfare plans, cafeteria plans and non-qualified plans) to determine what (if any) actions are required or recommended.
© Boutwell Fay LLP 2014, All Rights Reserved. This handout is for information purposes only, and may constitute attorney advertising. It should not be construed as legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you have questions or would like our advice with respect to any of this information, please contact us. The information contained in this article is effective as of September 31, 2014.
Comments