Year-End Challenges and Opportunities: Congress Passes SECURE Act, Caddy Tax Repeal, and More

On Thursday, December 19, the Senate passed two spending bills to fund the government through September 30, 2020, one of which (H.R. 1865, the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020” or the “Act”) contains the provisions from the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the “SECURE Act,” H.R. 1994). The House passed the two spending bills earlier this week and the President is expected to sign them into law by tomorrow. The SECURE Act includes almost thirty provisions aimed at encouraging the adoption of employer-sponsored plans and lifetime income options, altering plan distribution rules, easing administrative requirements, improving certain types of defined benefit plans, and more. Notably, a number of the provisions are effective with the New Year (which is fast approaching!).

The Act also includes a number of other retirement and health and welfare provisions of interest to employers and service providers. Among other things, it repeals three tax provisions from the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) – the “Cadillac tax,” health insurer tax, and medical device tax – and includes a series of tax and disaster-related provisions, including provisions affecting employee benefits.

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