The two-year budget agreement passed by Congress on Friday, February 9th, and signed by President Trump later that day, includes tax policy changes that affect qualified retirement plans. Specifically, qualified retirement plan hardship withdrawal operations will be impacted by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (the Budget Act) as follows:

• Removal of the six-month prohibition on deferrals following a hardship withdrawal. Section 41113 of the Budget Act directs the IRS to issue updated guidance to permit 401(k) and 403(b) plan participants who have taken a hardship distribution from a retirement plan to continue contributing to the plan, even immediately following the hardship distribution. Under current rules, once a participant elects to take a hardship distribution, no elective deferrals are permitted to be made until six months have passed from the date of the distribution. The revised rule will take effect on January 1, 2019 for plans that have a calendar-year plan year.
• Inclusion of QNECs, QMACs, and profit-sharing contributions in hardship withdrawals. Under current regulations, a plan sponsor may specify the sources of a participant’s plan assets eligible for a hardship withdrawal, but such assets may in no event include certain employer contributions. Beginning on January 1, 2019 (for calendar-year plans), the Budget Act rules will permit a participant’s 401(k) or 403(b) plan assets deriving from employer profit-sharing contributions, as well as from employer corrective contributions known as Qualified Nonelective Employer Contributions (QNECs) and Qualified Matching Contributions (QMACs), to be included in sources from which a hardship withdrawal may be taken. The earnings on such contributions will also be included among the assets available for withdrawal. Section 41114 of the Budget Act not only expands the potential sources of a hardship withdrawal, but also eliminates the requirement (previously elected by some employers) that a participant must have taken a plan loan before qualifying to take a hardship withdrawal.  
  

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the Tax Act), signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017, affects certain plan loan distributions. Specifically, for all tax-qualified retirement plans that offer loans, including 401(k), 401(a), 403(b), and governmental 457(b) plans, the Tax Act provides for an:

• Extended Deadline for Rolling Over Certain Plan Loan Offsets.
  • Background and prior law: A plan loan “offset” occurs when an individual owes an outstanding loan to a qualified retirement plan, but then experiences a distribution event that is either (1) a termination of employment; or (2) the termination of the plan. If the plan, in such situation, permits a participant’s account balance to be paid out in full, minus the loan amount, then a plan loan offset occurs. A Form 1099-R is issued, indicating that the offset amount is an actual distribution. If a participant receiving a loan offset takes no action, the offset loan amount is considered or “deemed” to be a distribution, and is subject to taxation. Under these facts, taxation of the offset amount can be avoided if: (1) the distribution is otherwise eligible to be rolled over; and (2) the participant rolls the full amount of the distribution, including the amount of the offset, into an IRA. To include the offset amount in the rollover, the participant will need to contribute personal (or borrowed) funds to the rollover amount. Previously, offset loans could only avoid taxation if such a rollover occurred within the 60-day period beginning on the date offset distribution.
  • New law, effective for plan years beginning on and after January 1, 2018: The Tax Act expressly extends the time period for avoid taxation by rolling over an offset loan until the participant’s deadline for filing a federal income tax return (taking any extensions into account). This change means that in many cases, a participant will have more time in which to effect a tax-free rollover of a loan offset occurring following termination of employment.
    

Caution: No Change to Basic Tax Rules

Although recent legislation is trending toward easing the rules relating to hardship withdrawals and plan loans, it is important to remember that nothing about the fundamental tax treatment of these distributions have changed.

A common misconception (especially among participants) is that if a participant qualifies for a hardship distribution, then the distribution from the plan is tax-free. A hardship distribution is subject to the same taxation rules as other plan distributions. Satisfying the standards for a hardship distribution simply entitles the participant to receive an in-service distribution of elective deferrals (and other contributions) from the plan, but the hardship distribution is subject to income taxes applicable to plan distributions. A hardship distribution is also generally subject to a 10% early distribution penalty, unless the participant has reached age 59-1/2. A hardship distribution is never eligible to be rolled over into an IRA.

Similarly, once a plan loan has been deemed distributed (either due to a plan loan repayment default, because a plan does not provide for an offset option upon distribution, or because an offset is not timely rolled into an IRA), the deemed distribution of a plan loan is taxed in the same manner as a regular plan distribution for purposes of determining the tax, including any early distribution penalty. A deemed distribution may never be rolled over into an IRA.

Plan Sponsor Action Items

With respect to plan hardship distributions, employer sponsors of 401(k) and 403(b) plans should prepare for the 2019 plan year by:

• Considering whether it is desirable to add a hardship distribution option to the plan (if not already permitted). If hardship distributions will be added, amend the plan and communicate the availability of the option to participants by preparation and distribution of a Summary of Material Modification (SMM) (or other appropriate form of communication in the event of a non-ERISA plan).
• Plan documents that already provide for hardship distributions should be amended, effective for the first day of the 2019 plan year, to eliminate the 6-month restriction on elective deferrals following a hardship distribution and to expand the permitted accounts from which hardship distributions may be taken. These details should be communicated to participants in the form of an SMM.

With respect to plan loans, plan sponsors of plans that permit loans should:

• Review the plan loan policy and plan loan provisions to determine if either should be updated to reflect this rule, or consider whether to modify the loan policy to take advantage of this rule. For example, if the plan currently permits continued loan repayments following termination of employment consider whether this option should be continued or eliminated. Consider also whether a loan note should be allowed to be rolled over to a successor plan upon plan termination or if the new extended rollover period provides sufficient flexibility to participants absent a rolled over loan note.
• Consider whether plan participant communications should be revised to alert participants to the greater flexibility now allowable for rollover of loan offset amounts.
• As applicable, confer with any third-party administrator for the plan to avoid inadvertently deeming a participant’s loan a deemed (taxable) distribution.