What deadlines apply to 403(b) plans

Written by Linda Segal Blinn

Key takeaways

• December 31, 2026 Cycle 2 Deadline: Employers with pre-approved 403(b) plans must adopt updated plan documents by December 31, 2026 to retroactively correct provisions and maintain IRS compliance for changes effective July 1, 2020 and beyond.
• SECURE Act 2.0 Amendment Requirements: Nonprofit organizations (non-governmental) have until December 31, 2026 to amend their 403(b) plans for SECURE Act 2.0 provisions, while public schools have extended deadlines through December 31, 2029 based on legislative requirements.
• Ongoing Compliance Beyond Cycle Deadlines: Even after adopting a pre-approved 403(b) plan during a remedial amendment period, employers must continue amending their plans by specific annual deadlines — typically December 31 of the second calendar year following the IRS Required Amendments List publication for regulatory changes, and by the plan year-end for discretionary plan design modifications.

Whether you are a school business official or a human resources employee of a nonprofit organization, chances are that you are juggling so many responsibilities that your time is at a premium. Knowing deadlines for amending your employer’s 403(b) plan document helps keep that plan compliant.

When did an employer first need to adopt a 403(b) plan?

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance required that public schools and 501(c)(3) organizations (with a limited exception for certain church and church-related organizations) that offered a 403(b) plan to adopt a written plan no later than December 31, 2009.

What is the purpose of a remedial amendment period for employers adopting a pre-approved 403(b) plan? 

After 2009, the IRS established a series of 403(b) plan document restatement cycles — known as remedial amendment periods — for employers who adopted a pre-approved 403(b) plan document to keep that plan current, both in terms of IRS requirements and optional plan design features offered under that employer’s 403(b) plan. 

A remedial amendment period enables an employer that timely adopted a pre-approved 403(b) plan to retroactively correct that plan document by modifying an existing provision or adding an omitted provision. Such a correction mechanism enables the 403(b) plan document to continue to meet the IRS regulatory requirements of a written plan.

To be eligible for such retroactive correction, the employer must have adopted its 403(b) plan in accordance with the applicable IRS deadline:

• For the first remedial amendment period that closed on June 30, 2020 (Cycle 1): an employer that had timely adopted its 403(b) plan document by December 31, 2009 was able to correct 403(b) plan document provisions to align with the IRS rules retroactive to January 1, 2010.
• For the second remedial amendment period that closes on December 31, 2026 (Cycle 2): an employer that had timely adopted a pre-approved 403(b) plan document by June 30, 2020 will be able to correct 403(b) plan document provisions to align with the IRS rules by adopting a Cycle 2 pre-approved 403(b) plan document with an effective date retroactive to July 1, 2020.

If a plan sponsor has timely adopted a pre-approved 403(b) plan by a Cycle’s remedial amendment deadline, does that mean that the 403(b) plan does not need to be amended until the next remedial amendment period?

No, an employer that has adopted a pre-approved 403(b) plan document will still need to be amended before the next remedial amendment period to: 

1. Reflect recent Internal Revenue Code requirements and related IRS guidance; and
2. Include any additional optional plan design features.

What is the deadline for adopting amendments to a 403(b) plan?

Starting in 2019, the IRS has maintained an annual Required Amendment List, identifying federal legislative and regulatory changes for 403(b) plans that are first effective during the plan year in which that year’s Required Amendments List is published. 

In the absence of a federal legislative that imposes a specific plan amendment deadline, the following summarizes when a 403(b) plan document (whether IRS pre-approved or individually designed) must be amended: 

Deadline to adopt the amendment: 

*The 403(b) plan must be operated in compliance with the applicable amendment as of the effective date of that amendment. The IRS provides an Operational Compliance List to assist employers in operating their 403(b) plans in accordance with the Internal Revenue Code modifications effective in that calendar year.

What would be an example of a federal legislative provision that impacts an amendment for either a plan design change or to meet federal legislative and regulatory changes?

Federal law that provides for optional or mandatory plan amendments may include a deadline for when a plan must be amended. For example, SECURE Act 2.0 (the “Act”) permits an employer to adopt a provision of the Act that is effective in 2023, but has (as applicable) until:

• December 31, 2026 (plans not subject to collective bargaining agreements and sponsored by nongovernmental employers);
• December 31, 2028 (plans subject to collective bargaining agreement of a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization); or
• December 31, 2029 (plans sponsored by a public school)

to amend its 403(b) plan to reflect the change.

What happens if an employer intended to adopt a pre-approved 403(b) plan document, but did not sign that IRS pre-approved plan by the remedial amendment deadline?

If an employer did not timely adopt a restated IRS pre-approved 403(b) plan document by the applicable Cycle’s remedial amendment deadline, that employer is now considered to have adopted an individually designed 403(b) plan document.

An employer that did not timely adopt a current pre-approved 403(b) plan may nevertheless still satisfy the IRS written plan regulatory requirements as an individually designed 403(b) plan. If the employer (together with its legal counsel) determines that corrections to the individually designed 403(b) plan document are warranted, those corrections can be resolved in accordance with the IRS’ Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System.

Best practices

1. Coordinate with your plan document provider regarding deadlines for amending the 403(b) plan for plan design changes and for federal legislative/regulatory requirements.
2. Authorize an individual to be responsible for timely adopting plan amendments to the 403(b) plan.
3. Authorize an individual to be responsible for timely adopting plan amendments to the 403(b) plan.

Resources

• IRS Notice 2024-02
• IRS Required Amendments List
• IRS Operational Compliance List
• IRS Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System
• IRS Announcement 2024-38
• IRS Revenue Procedure 2022-40

This article has been updated from the original version.