State & Federal Legislative Developments

State Issues

• Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill requiring New York State businesses with ten or more employees to automatically enroll their employees in the New York State Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program if they don’t otherwise offer access to a retirement benefit or plan.  Under the Program, IRA accounts are entirely funded by employee contributions made through automatic payroll deductions, and employees may opt-out at any time.   The Program is overseen by an appointed, nine-member Board, with administrative and technical support provided by the Department of Taxation and Financial Services. 

• Democrats working to trim a proposed $3.5 trillion spending package to garner more bipartisan support have offered a scaled-back version of the controversial bank reporting measure that would require banks to report to the IRS of aggregate account inflows and outflows for accounts with a value of $10,000 or more, rather than the $600 threshold contained in the previous proposal. The new proposal also exempts certain benefits-related transactions from reporting. Banking industry representatives rejected the new plan based on privacy concerns, also noting that the exemptions will further complicate the banks’ reporting process. Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, has written to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen with a series of questions on the proposal. Despite the revisions, NYBA continues to actively oppose this measure. Senator Tim Scott (R-FL) has introduced a bill to essentially block the IRS from establishing any new bank reporting requirements. If you have not already done so, please join NYBA’s Grassroots Action Alert campaign to defeat this proposal.