On December 5, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury Department) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2024-82, outlining the 2024 Required Amendments List (RA List) for qualified plans under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) sections 401(a) and 403(b). The RA List provides the plan amendment deadline to reflect legislative, regulatory, and guidance changes appearing on the list affecting the requirements for such plans and applies to both individually designed plans and pre-approved plans.¹

In general, any given year’s RA List consists of those changes for which the IRS has provided regulatory or other guidance on such changes (or anticipates no guidance is necessary) and with which plans must comply in operation during the calendar year in which the list is published.

The amendments on the 2024 RA List pertain to provisions from the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act), the Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 (Miners Act), the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (Relief Act), and the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0 Act).

The RA List is an annual list of changes in statutory and administrative requirements that plans may need to adopt to maintain their tax-qualified or tax-advantaged status. The RA List is divided into three parts:

• “Part A includes changes in requirements that (1) generally would require an amendment to most plans or to most plans of the type affected by the changes, and (2) do not relate to optional plan provisions previously adopted.”

• “Part B includes changes in requirements that (1) the Treasury Department and the IRS anticipate will not require amendments to most plans but might require an amendment because of an unusual plan provision in a particular plan, and (2) do not relate to optional plan provisions previously adopted. For example, if a change affects a particular requirement that most plans incorporate by reference, Part B would include that change because a particular plan might not incorporate the requirement by reference and, thus, might include language inconsistent with the change.”

• “Part C includes changes in requirements that relate to optional plan provisions previously adopted.”

Certain adjustments, such as cost-of-living increases to dollar limits or updates to IRC section 417(e) interest rates and mortality tables, are considered part of the annual RA List for the year the changes are effective even if not explicitly mentioned. The Treasury Department and IRS expect few plans include language requiring amendments due to these changes.

Required changes that apply to most plans (Part A)

There are no required amendments in this category.

Required changes related to unusual plan provisions (Part B)

The following changes may require an amendment based on a plan’s unusual provisions.

• Rural electric cooperatives. Section 119 of the SECURE 2.0 Act eliminated the IRC section 415 compensation limit for non-highly-compensated employees who participate in rural electric cooperative defined benefit (DB) retirement plans.
• Family attribution rules. Section 315 of the SECURE 2.0 Act modified the IRC section 414 family attribution rules by disregarding state community property laws for ownership determination for spouses with separate businesses and preventing certain stock attributions among parents with separate businesses who have minor children from automatically creating controlled or affiliated service groups.

Required changes related to previously adopted optional provisions (Part C)

Amendments may be necessary for plans that adopted the following optional provisions prior to the time the related IRS guidance was issued for each provision:

• In-service coronavirus-related distributions. The plan amendment for plans that adopted these distributions under section 2202 of the CARES Act must comply with the guidance in IRS Notice 2020-50.
• Required minimum distributions (RMDs). Plans that adopted available RMD relief such as waiving 2020 defined contribution (DC) plan RMDs under the CARES Act, permitting rollovers of waived 2020 RMDs, extending the 60-day rollover period for certain 2020 distributions not treated as RMDs, and utilizing transition relief related to RMD changes under the SECURE Act or the SECURE 2.0 Act need to ensure their plan amendments for these changes follow the guidance provided in IRS Notice 2020-51, IRS Notice 2023-54, and IRS Notice 2024-35.
• Qualified birth or adoption distributions (QBADs). Plans that adopted QBADs under section 113 of the SECURE Act must verify that their plan amendments for this change conform to the guidance provided in section D of IRS Notice 2020-68. In addition, section 311 of the SECURE 2.0 Act limited the repayment period for such distributions to “the 3-year period beginning on the day after the date on which such distribution was received.”
• Minimum age for in-service distributions. Section 104 of the Miners Act lowered the minimum age a DB plan may permit in-service distributions from 62 to 59½ and that a governmental 457(b) plan may permit in-service distributions from 70½ to 59½. Plans that adopted this change must confirm that their plan amendments for this change adhere to the guidance in section F of IRS Notice 2020-68.
• Safe harbor plans. Safe harbor 401(k) and 403(b) plans that increased the 10% cap on safe harbor automatic enrollment elective deferral contributions, eliminated certain notice requirements for safe harbor nonelective contributions, or retroactively adopted safe harbor nonelective contribution status as provided under sections 102 and 103 of the SECURE Act must make sure their plan amendments for these changes comply with the guidance in IRS Notice 2020-86.
  
  Additionally, automatic enrollment safe harbor matching contribution plans must reflect the annual safe harbor notice requirement as clarified under section 401 of the SECURE 2.0 Act.
• Small immediate financial incentives. Employers that adopted this provision under section 113 of SECURE 2.0 to incentivize employees to make elective salary deferral contributions should ensure their plan amendments for this provision follow the guidance provided in section D of IRS Notice 2024-2.
• Increased contribution limits for SIMPLE 401(k) plans. Contribution limits under these plans were increased by section 117 of the SECURE 2.0 Act for certain eligible employers sponsoring these plans. Such employers that adopted this optional provision must confirm that their plan amendment for this change conforms to the guidance provided in section E of IRS Notice 2024-2.
• Replacing a SIMPLE retirement account with a safe harbor 401(k) plan during a year. Plans that take this action as provided by section 332 of the SECURE 2.0 Act must make sure their plan amendments for this provision adhere to the guidance in section G of IRS Notice 2024-2.
• Cash balance plan testing. Under section 348 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, certain cash balance plans with pay credits that increase with age or service and that use a variable interest credit can use a reasonable projection of the variable interest crediting rate, not to exceed 6%, for purposes of the IRC section 411(b) benefit accrual rules. Plan amendments for this provision must reflect the guidance in section H of IRS Notice 2024-2.
• Roth matching or nonelective contributions. DC plans that permit 100% vested participants to designate employer matching or nonelective contributions as Roth contributions under section 604 of the SECURE 2.0 Act should ensure their plan amendments for this provision follow the guidance in section L of IRS Notice 2024-2.
• Anti-abuse rules related to pension-linked emergency savings accounts (PLESAs). DC plans that added a PLESA as provided by section 127 of the SECURE 2.0 Act should confirm that their plan amendments for this provision conform to the anti-abuse rules guidance in IRS Notice 2024-22.
• Exceptions to the 10% additional tax on early distributions. Plan amendments for plans that permit emergency personal expense distributions or domestic abuse victim distributions under sections 115 and 314 of the SECURE 2.0 Act must follow the guidance in IRS Notice 2024-55.

Plan amendment deadlines

December 31, 2026, is generally the plan amendment deadline for items in the 2024 RA List. The deadline may be later for governmental plans.

The deadlines related to required and discretionary plan amendments of the SECURE 2.0 Act, the SECURE Act, and certain provisions of the Miners Act, CARES Act, and Relief Act are provided in IRS Notice 2024-2 and are summarized here.

Please contact your Milliman consultant with any questions.

¹ The RA List plan amendment deadline is referred to as the “remedial amendment period deadline” for individually designed plans and the “interim amendment deadline” for pre-approved plans. Effective November 21, 2023, Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2023-37 provides that these deadlines will be aligned.