FAQs Keeping Pace With COVID-19 Questions

As questions pour into the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service from employers on the Families First Act and the CARES Act, both agencies are updating their respective FAQs.  Here are the latest updates:

Department of Labor: 

DOL has added four FAQs, #90-#93, concerning paid family leave or paid leave. These are:

• FAQ #90 explains whether paid leave requirements under FFCRA apply to temporary workers. A temporary service with over 500 employees is not required to provide leave to its employees. However, the business with fewer than 500 employees where the temporary worker is placed may be required to if it is a joint employer. 
• FAQ #91 addresses whether an employee who has been teleworking is entitled to paid sick or family leave for a school closure when schools have been closed for the past four weeks during the teleworking period. The DOL explains the fact the teleworking employee did not request paid leave during the teleworking period does not exclude the employee from taking such leave.
• FAQ #92 describes what kind of documentation an employer is permitted to require from an employee who is seeking a medical diagnosis related to COVID-19 symptoms. The DOL explains an employer may require the employee to identify their symptoms and provide a date for a test or doctor’s appointment. However, no further documentation or certification is required. FMLA related leave requests are subject to FMLA documentation requirements. 
• FAQ #93 clarifies that workers who have taken paid sick and paid family leave due to a school closure may not continue to take paid family leave when the school year ends for summer vacation. However, the employee can take paid family leave on the basis that the child’s childcare provider or summer camp is closed or unavailable during the summer due to COVID-19. 

Internal Revenue Service:

• The Internal Revenue Service updated FAQs #64 and #65 regarding the COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit for how eligible employers treat health care expenses. 
• Notice 2020-29 provides for increased flexibility with respect to mid-year elections made under a § 125 cafeteria plan during calendar year 2020 related to employer-sponsored health coverage, health Flexible Spending Arrangements (health FSAs), and dependent care assistance programs. The notice also provides increased flexibility with respect to grace periods to apply unused amounts in health FSAs to medical care expenses incurred through December 31, 2020, and unused amounts in dependent care assistance programs to dependent care expenses incurred through December 31, 2020.
• Notice 2020-33 increases the $500 limit for unused amounts remaining in a health flexible spending arrangement (health FSA) that may be carried over into the following year by making the carryover amount 20 percent of the maximum salary reduction amount under § 125(i), which is indexed for inflation. This calculation had been the basis for the $500 limit under Notice 2013-71, but the $500 limit did not incorporate the indexing.  Thus, for 2020, under this new notice the carryover amount will increase to $550.  The notice cross-references Notice 2020-29 for guidance on how a § 125 cafeteria plan may be amended to allow prospective health FSA election changes for the 2020 calendar year. Notice 2020-29 provides relief in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that, among other things, permits employers to amend § 125 cafeteria plans to provide participants the flexibility to change health FSA contribution elections at such times as the employer permits through the end of 2020, provided that any changes are applied only prospectively.