De minimis financial incentives

Aug 29, 2024 Last reply: 1 year ago 1 Replies

I'm subscribed to several IRS mailing lists in which guidance and other issues are announced. I skim through it in case it's applicable.



I found this fact sheet confusing.



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It's an alert that de minimis financial incentives given to employees to encourage their participation in certain retirement plans, a provision of SECURE 2.0 Act, might affect how W-2s and similar payroll information returns are prepared.



Huh?



The whole point of deminimis rules is that it's not large enough to be reported.



There's a reference to a notice published in an issue of Internal Revenue Bulletin that makes the issue clearer.



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Read Q&A D-1 through D-6. De minimis is "does not exceed $250 in value".



That makes more sense.


So, as I understand it, here De minimus is not that is its not large enough to be reported as taxable income, but that it is not large enough to violate the contingent benefit rule and which would otherwise void the entire deferred compensation arrangement.

Good find, thanks.

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