IRS Extends Additional Deadlines for Certain Tax-Qualified Plan Amendments

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued Notice 2022-45 (the Notice), extending deadlines for amending an eligible retirement plan to reflect certain provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act) and the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (the Relief Act).

As indicated in our prior update, the IRS previously issued Notice 2022-33 to extend the retirement plan amendment deadlines for the SECURE Act, the Miners Act, and the CARES Act. Notably, Notice 2022-33 did not extend the amendment deadline for Covid-19 relief regarding special coronavirus-related distributions, a higher plan loan cap, and a suspension of loan repayments permitted under the CARES Act.

The Notice delays deadlines to adopt amendments under Section 2202 of the CARES Act regarding (1) favorable tax treatment with respect to coronavirus-related distributions, (2) increases in permissible loan amounts, and (3) delaying repayment of plan loans. The Notice also delays the deadline to adopt amendments under Section 302 of the Relief Act, which provides favorable tax treatment with respect to qualified disaster distributions. The IRS explains that plan amendments to reflect the CARES Act and Relief Act provisions, as described in the Notice, as well as the amendments described in Notice 2022-33, may now be adopted on a single date.

The new amendment deadlines are as follows:
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Type of Plan	Extended Deadline
Tax-qualified plans (other than governmental plans); 403(b) plans not for public school employees, including an applicable collectively bargained plan	December 31, 2025
Governmental qualified plans; 457(b) and 403(b) plans for public school employees	Generally 90 days after the close of the third regular legislative session of the legislative body with the authority to amend the plan that begins after December 31, 2023

The Notice provides relief from the anticutback rules (which generally prohibit plan amendments that decrease a participant’s accrued benefit) for such amendments made pursuant to the CARES Act relief described above. However, no such anticutback relief is available under Section 302 of the Relief Act. 

Knowledge Management Lawyer Katie Dean contributed to this Sidley Update.