Washington, DC – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) provided feedback to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Revenue Procedure 2021-30 (the Revenue Procedure), which sets the IRS’s latest guidance regarding its Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS). ERIC’s comments specifically focused on the Revenue Procedure’s provisions regarding the correction of pension plan overpayments.
“Agency guidance should allow ERIC’s large plan sponsor member companies to continue to provide effective and cost-efficient retirement programs,” said Andy Banducci, Senior Vice President of Retirement and Compensation Policy, ERIC. “ERIC supports the new guidance on accidental overpayments, and we call on the IRS to take additional steps and add more flexibility for employers.”
ERIC’s comments urged the IRS to consider providing additional flexibilities to plan sponsors and overpayment recipients similar to those in the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021 and the Retirement Security and Savings Act of 2021. Specifically, ERIC supports relaxing the requirement that plan sponsors must recoup all inadvertent overpayments to retirees so long as certain conditions are met.
ERIC also requested that the IRS make changes to specific guidelines for correcting pension plan overpayments, including:
- Increasing the threshold for correcting errors from $250 to $1,000
- Expanding eligibility for recoupment installment agreements
- Allowing more timing flexibility for reasonable repayment agreements