After empty RA List, IRS delays amendment deadlines for new laws 

December 21, 2023

For the second year in a row, the IRS Required Amendments (RA) List (Notice 2023-79) identifies no statutory or regulatory changes for individually designed qualified and Section 403(b) retirement plans. When items appear on the annual RA List, sponsors have until the end of the second calendar year after the year the list was issued to adopt conforming plan amendments, if necessary. This means most employers won’t have a 2025 year-end required amendment deadline. Released after issuance of the 2023 RA List, IRS Notice 2024-2 extends the deadline to at least Dec. 31, 2026, for required and discretionary amendments related to recent legislation, including the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (Div. T of Pub. L. No. 117-328). However, employers making unrelated discretionary changes in 2025 generally will still need to amend their plans by the end of the 2025 plan year (Dec. 31, 2025, for calendar-year plans), in accordance with the normal discretionary amendment timing rules.

Several pieces of legislation enacted since 2019 include a host of required and discretionary changes for retirement plans. Although SECURE 2.0 harmonized the amendment deadlines for these laws to the end of the first plan year beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2025 — meaning amendments would have been due Dec. 31, 2025, for calendar-year plans — Notice 2024-2 extends that deadline by an additional year to Dec 31, 2026 (later dates may apply for governmental and certain collectively bargained plans). The deadline applies to all amendments — required or discretionary — related to these laws:

• the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (Div. O of Pub. L. No. 116-94)
• the Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 (Div. M of Pub. L. No. 116-94)
• the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act (Pub. L. No. 116-136)
• the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act (Div. EE of Pub. L. No. 116-260)
• the SECURE 2.0 Act

Employers making discretionary design changes unrelated to the laws listed above during the 2025 plan year generally will need to adopt conforming plan amendments by the end of that plan year. For calendar-year plan sponsors, the discretionary amendment deadline will be Dec. 31, 2025. However, employers have a different deadline for discretionary amendments made in 2025 that increase benefits (other than matching contributions) retroactively to the 2024 plan year. Those amendments must be adopted by the employer’s extended tax-filing deadline for the tax year in which the retroactive amendment takes effect. (SECURE 2.0 extended the deadline for these types of discretionary amendments starting with the 2024 plan year).

Some changes not specifically referenced on RA List. Each RA List automatically includes certain periodic updates, such as cost-of-living adjustments, spot segment rates used to determine the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 417(e)(3) applicable interest rate and the Section 417(e) applicable mortality table for the year in which the changes are effective. IRS anticipates that few plans will need amendments for these updates, which plans typically incorporate by reference to an IRC section or index. Plans that don’t incorporate these updates by reference will need amendments by the end of 2025 for changes effective in 2023.

• Notice 2023-79 (IRS, Dec. 8, 2023)
• Required Amendments List (IRS, updated periodically)
• Notice 2022-33 (IRS, Aug. 3, 2022)
• Notice 2020-68 (IRS, Sept. 2, 2020)

• User’s guide to SECURE 2.0 (regularly updated)
• IRS extends more retirement plan amendment deadlines (Sept. 28, 2022)
• IRS extends amendment deadlines for SECURE, Miners and CARES acts (Aug. 5, 2022)
• IRS issues FAQs on SECURE and Bipartisan American Miners Act (Sept. 22, 2020)