The IRS has provided guidance on the federal income tax treatment of certain home energy rebates offered by states, with funds provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Background The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included two provisions allowing rebates for home energy efficiency retrofit projects and home electrification and appliance projects. These home energy rebate programs are to...
Each year, the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds provide detailed reports to Congress that track the programs' current financial condition and projected financial outlook. These reports have warned for years that the trust funds would be depleted in the not-too-distant future, and the most recent reports, released on May 6, 2024, show that Social Security and Medicare...
The U.S. stock market surged in the first quarter of 2024 (Q1), once again led by the S&P 500 Index. The index notched 22 new highs in the quarter, increasing by 10.2%. Mega cap technology stocks led the charge with NVIDIA (NVDA), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) appreciating by 82.5%, 37.2%, 18.7%, and 11.9%, respectively. However, a...
An automatic enrollment provision can be a useful tool to drive employee engagement in plans, particularly for participants who otherwise have not yet considered their retirement situation. These provisions allow an employer to withhold deferrals from the employee’s pay without the employee making an election. By utilizing automatic enrollment, an employer can boost participation while...
Although required minimum distributions (RMDs) are now mandatory components of tax-deferred retirement plans, this was not always the case. RMD rules began to apply to qualified plans following the Tax Reform Act of 1986, after policy makers noticed that retirement account holders were saving the funds for their beneficiaries rather than their own retirement spending. A plan retains...
The IRS Form 5500 is an annual return that is filed for most qualified retirement plans. Here are a few new items you may notice on the form for plan years that began in 2023. Participant count has been expanded for defined contribution plans. The large plan audit requirement is now based on the number of participants with account balances at the beginning of the plan year, rather than the total...
May 2024 15th: Quarterly Benefit Statement – Deadline for participant-directed plans to supply participants with the quarterly benefit/disclosure statement, including a statement of plan fees and expenses charged to individual plan accounts during the first quarter of 2024. June 2024 30th: EACA ADP/ACP Corrections – Deadline for processing corrective distributions for failed ADP/ACP tests...
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included two provisions allowing rebates for home energy efficiency retrofit projects and home electrification and appliance projects. These home energy rebate programs are to be administered by state energy offices, with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) providing guidance and oversight. States are not required to offer these rebates. Many states have...
It's been a tough financial aid season for college students and their families. The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) was redesigned and simplified for the 2024-25 school year, in what was supposed to benefit families completing the application. But a late rollout and the subsequent discovery of form calculation errors have led to processing delays and, by extension, delays for...
We are proud to announce that Benefit Financial Services Group (BFSG) is now a BBB Accredited Business! This signifies that we have achieved the highest standards of ethics and integrity as determined by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Our unwavering commitment to always striving to place our clients’ interests above all else has been acknowledged, and we are thrilled to be recognized for our...
If your income hits a certain level, you may face an additional wrinkle in calculating your taxes: the net investment income tax (also referred to as the unearned income Medicare contribution tax). This 3.8% Medicare tax applies to some or all of your net investment income if your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) exceeds certain thresholds. The tax is in addition to any other income tax...
It's not easy to keep up with complex tax laws that always seem to be changing, much less figure out how they might affect you personally. Even so, it's important to consider the potential impact of taxes when making many types of financial decisions. The IRS automatically adjusts the standard deduction and income tax brackets annually for inflation. The rate of inflation rose to 40-year highs...
February 2024 28th: IRS Form 1099-R Copy A – Deadline to submit Form 1099-R Copy A to the IRS for participants and beneficiaries who received a distribution or a deemed distribution during the prior plan year. This deadline applies to scannable paper filings. For electronic filings, the due date is April 1, 2024, as the typical March 31 deadline falls on a weekend. March 2024 15th:...
As part of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act), part-time employees who worked at least 500 hours each year in 2021, 2022, and 2023 qualify as Long-Term, Part-Time (LTPT) employees. LTPT employees were eligible to make elective deferrals on January 1, 2024. What happens if you missed enrolling one of these employees? Mistakes happen. When it comes...
Excess deferrals occur when a 401(k) participant defers a greater amount than the annual IRS limit permits. The annual deferral limit was $22,500 for 2023 and $23,000 for 2024. For participants 50 years old and older, an additional $7,500 can be deferred. When this limit is exceeded, excess deferrals and earnings need to be removed from the plan and returned to the participant. Employer matching...
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