Kushner & Company: For Your Benefit
Fall 2021

The IRS has now released all of the 2022 benefit limits on November 10, 2021. Earlier this year, they also released the High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and Health Savings Account (HSA) limits.
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The IRS has new requirements for employers that utilize a fully discretionary matching contribution formula in their pre-approved plans. Note: this does not apply if the employer’s plan uses a safe harbor match and also excludes discretionary matches in their plan document. In order to comply with the “definitely determinable benefits” require-ment in which a plan must provide a definite predetermined formula for allocating plan contributions, Employers must satisfy two new requirements when approving a dis-cretionary match:

In a recent news release, the IRS reminds employers and employees that the cost of COVID-19 home testing is an eligible expense under a health care flexible spending account (FSA), health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), and health savings account (HSA).

Among its many provisions, the ACA says that Applicable Large Employers (ALEs)–those with 50 or more FTEs–must provide Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) that meets Minimum Value (MV) standards and that is affordable to at least 95 percent of its full-time employees (those averaging 30 or more hours per week), or else the employer pays an excise tax penalty. “Affordable” is defined in the Act as the premium cost-share for employee-only coverage not exceeding 9.5 percent (as indexed) of an employee’s household income for the employer’s lowest-cost plan. The indexed percentage goes down for 2022.

In one of the first reported attempts to “nudge” its unvaccinated employees to become vaccinated, Delta Airlines announced that starting in 2022 it was imposing a $200 per month premium surcharge for any COVID-19 unvaccinated employee enrolling in one of its health plans. Other employers quickly began asking if this was allowable under a myriad of employee benefit laws and regulations. The answer is “yes,” but…

In IRS Information Letter 2021-13, the agency reiterates that Flexible Spending Account (FSA) claims paid on an FSA debit card must have the required substantiation, containing all of the information normally required for a claim submitted for reimbursement through other means such as mail, e-mail, or fax. The only exception to those rules are for those expenses received at certain providers (pharmacies, for example) that can be auto-substantiated by both the Merchant Category Code (MCC) of the provider’s debit card machine as well as the actual item or service received as identified by an Inventory Information Approval System (IIAS) from any non-health care provider.