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.
Abhishek Peter is the Manager - Digital Marketing at FECUND Software Services. He has a passion for solving complex problems with innovative solutions. Through his blog, Abhishek shares his expertise and provides insights into the worlds of marketing, insurance, technology, and more.
Nick is a startup veteran and Internet technology expert with over 25 years of application development, testing, and cybersecurity experience. He is recognized as an industry expert in the realms of API development, API management, and API security. In the world of APIs, Nick has helped architect and implement some of the largest API Management and monolith to microservice digital transformation projects in North America. Nick has had the honor of speaking at prestigious conferences including Blackhat, RSA, AWS re:inforce, SecureWorld, APIWorld, and his expert opinions are regularly featured in prominent publications such as Darkreading, Infosecurity Magazine, Computer Weekly, SC Magazine, Security Boulevard, Security Week, and many others.
As Field CTO and Product Strategist at Salt Security, Nick helps guide and positively influence how organizations can foster API-driven success, while protecting themselves from today's emerging API security threats. Prior to joining Salt, Nick was an early contributor to the success of Kong, the world's most widely used API management platform.
Monica McCoy is the founder and CEO of Monica Motivates.
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.
