SMALL BUSINESS NEWS

Jun 2019

 

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Big Changes Coming To The Retirement System

There is a bill making its way through the U.S. Congress that will incentivize small businesses to start retirement plans for their employees.

 

The bill, known as the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (The SECURE Act) gives the following credits to small businesses:

 

-Small Businesses can get from $500 to $5,000 in tax credits for three years to defray the cost of setting up retirement plans for their employees.

 

-Under the plan employers can also get a $500 tax credit per year, for three years, to setup a new automatic enrollment plan or convert an existing plan to an automatic enrollment plan.

 

The bill will enable employees to move their retirement plans from their former employers to their new employers when they change jobs.

 

It will also allow employees to make contributions to the plan for a longer period of time (up to 72 years old).

 

Under this new plan employers will be required to enroll part-time employees.  Employers maintaining a 401(k) plan will be required to allow long-term part-time workers to participate in the plan if the employee complete either a one year of service requirement (with the 1,000-hour rule) or three consecutive years of service where the employee completes at least 500 hours of service.

 

 

There will be penalties for failure to file retirement plan returns.  The legislation modifies the failure to file penalties for retirement plan returns. The Form 5500 penalty would be modified to $105 per day, not to exceed $50,000. Failure to file a registration statement would incur a penalty of $2 per participant per day, not to exceed $10,000. Failure to file a required notification of change would result in a penalty of $2 per day, not to exceed $5,000 for any failure. Failure to provide a required withholding notice results in a penalty of $100 for each failure, not to exceed $50,000 for all failures during any calendar year.

 

The bill was supported by Democrats and Republicans and hence is likely to pass both the House and Senate and make its way to the President’s desk soon.

Sources:
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (The SECURE Act)

By Bill Williams