The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law on March 27, 2020.

For those seeking access to their retirement funds, these include special provisions for coronavirus-related distributions and loans. For those seeking to preserve their retirement funds, certain required minimum distributions from retirement funds have been suspended.

Coronavirus-related distributions

A 10% penalty tax generally applies to distributions from an employer retirement plan or individual retirement account (IRA) before age 59½ unless an exception applies. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the penalty tax will not apply to up to $100,000 of coronavirus-related distributions to an individual during 2020. Additionally, income resulting from a coronavirus-related distribution is spread over a three-year period for tax purposes unless an individual elects otherwise. Coronavirus-related distributions can also be paid back to an eligible retirement plan within three years of the day after the distribution was received.

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The Treasury Department is working on a web-based portal (www.irs.gov) that will allow individuals to submit direct deposit details in order to “receive payments immediately as opposed to checks in the mail.”  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that people can expect to receive their checks in three weeks – April 17 is when the direct deposits will go into people’s accounts.  A check in the mail could take longer.

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The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) (P.L. 116-136), signed into law March 27, features several different relief programs to help businesses stay afloat, but some of them are mutually exclusive, meaning business owners need to understand each one.

Like you, our firm is monitoring the situation and awaiting guidance from the IRS to implement many of these provisions. In addition, our firm needs to await software companies to make coding changes to allow us to process some of these provisions for our clients.

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