The Internal Revenue Service issued guidance Tuesday to make temporary changes to section 125 cafeteria plans, with the goal of providing tax relief and flexibility in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The IRS is extending the claims period for health care flexible spending arrangements and dependent care assistance programs and enabling taxpayers to make mid-year changes to their accounts.
The guidance released Tuesday by the IRS deals with the unanticipated changes in expenses faced by many taxpayers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IRS is now allowing its previously provided temporary relief for high deductible health plans to be applied retroactively to Jan. 1, 2020, and also increases for inflation the $500 permitted carryover amount for health FSAs to $550.
Ori Faran is co-founder and CEO of Callvu. After serving as an engineer and professional services manager at Cosmocom and Enghouse Interactive, he founded Callvu in 2012 to help companies build easy-to-use digital experiences that automate customer service through seamless self-serve and agent-led interactions.
Lynn Gallin is the Vice President of Product Marketing at Rightworks, where she leads the strategy and execution of marketing initiatives to deliver innovative solutions for accounting professionals.
Prior to joining Rightworks, Lynn advised numerous leading companies on product strategy and managed extensive marketing research projects focused on branding, positioning, pricing, and communication effectiveness. She has over 20 years of experience in the B2B tech industry, including serving as Vice President of Corporate Partnership Marketing at Southern New Hampshire University in addition to marketing leadership positions at Skillsoft and Newforma. Lynn also successfully ran a market research consulting practice, advising high-tech companies like Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Autodesk.
Cindy Dash is the senior vice president and general manager for Broadridge's Retirement and Workplace division.
Prior to that she was the COO of Matrix, where she successfully led the integration into Broadridge. Prior to her role as COO of Matrix, Dash was general counsel for that firm for more than 10 years.
In Notice 2020-29, the IRS is offering extra flexibility to taxpayers by:
- extending the claims periods for taxpayers to apply unused amounts remaining in a health FSA or dependent care assistance program for expenses incurred for those same qualified benefits through Dec. 31, 2020;
- expanding the ability of taxpayers to make mid-year elections for health coverage, health FSAs and dependent care assistance programs, allowing them to respond to changes in needs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; and
- applying earlier relief for high-deductible health plans to cover expenses related to COVID-19, and a temporary exemption for telehealth services retroactively to Jan. 1, 2020.
In conjunction with that notice, the IRS also issued Notice 2020-33, in response to the Trump administration’s Executive Order 13877, which directs the Treasury secretary to “issue guidance to increase the amount of funds that can carry over without penalty at the end of the year for flexible spending arrangements.” The notice ups the limit for unused health FSA carryover amounts from $500, to a maximum of $550, adjusted each year for inflation.
