Compliance

Obamacare overshadows same-sex marriage benefit compliance

Employers focused on Obamacare may be missing one of today’s most important compliance issues: benefits for same-sex married couples. Since June 2013, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Windsor that a federal statute limiting the terms “spouse” and “marriage” to couples of the opposite sex was unconstitutional, a sea-change has taken place in national attitudes about same-sex marriage.

Benefits Think IRS targets Roth feature in 401(k) plans

The IRS has launched a compliance check program to better understand how plan sponsors are complying with Roth deferral provisions in 401(k) plans. If asked to participate, failure to to respond could trigger an audit.

Mass. repeals state pay-or-play regulations

The state of Massachusetts officially repealed the employer pay-or-play regulations that were part of its landmark 2006 health care reform law. Similar to the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act, the state statute required employers of a certain size to either offer health care coverage to their employees or pay a fine.

Andrea Davis
By Andrea Davis
Editor-in-Chief
Employee Benefit News

IRS regulations clarify employer ACA reporting requirements

The IRS issued final regulations in March designed to simplify the employer reporting requirements imposed by the Affordable Care Act. Most importantly, the regulations permit combined reporting for the multiple requirements and simplify reporting where a large employer provides affordable group health coverage, which is of minimum value to almost all of its employees. Here's how the new regulations will affect both large and small employers.

Mary Bauman
By Mary Bauman
Member of the Firm
Miller Johnson Attorneys

Wellness nondiscrimination rules challenge employers

Final regulations implementing the ACA’s nondiscrimination rules for wellness programs became effective in January, but many employers are still unclear about how the regulations have changed. The changes are subtle, but noncompliance can carry heavy penalties.

Andrea Davis
By Andrea Davis
Editor-in-Chief
Employee Benefit News

New post-Windsor guidance on same-sex marriage

While the uniform definition of marriage and clarification that, for all federal purposes, the terms spouse, husband and wife will be defined on a gender-neutral basis, questions have remained with regard to the effects of the post-Windsor guidance on qualified retirement plans and other employee benefit programs.

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