Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent and Assistant Treasury Secretary Ken Kies managed to release the 2025-26 Priority Guidance Plan, right before the shutdown.  The new guidance plan has only 105 projects vs. last year's 231.   

There is some good news – for example, many SECURE 2.0 projects are still on the list.  And, many OBBBA projects made the list, including changes to Code sections 162(m), 4960, and 223.  

And now for the bad news.  Several important guidance projects have been dropped, including a longstanding guidance project on VEBA and other welfare benefit funds under Code sections 419, 419A, etc.  Practitioners had been hoping that this project could include helpful clarification that the 100% tax on “reversions” from welfare benefit funds under Code section 4976 does not apply to certain “repurposings” of plan assets for other permissible benefits.  Many employers and their advisers have been eager for guidance since the IRS made this a “no rule” area beginning in 2020. Note, however, that the Code section 4976 regulations were included on the recently-released Treasury regulatory agenda with a May 2026 expected date.  So, we are hoping that guidance might still be forthcoming – stay tuned for more news on that front.

Observers of the Treasury/IRS guidance process recognize that there is no guarantee that all projects on the list will be completed during the guidance period, but the introduction to the priority guidance plan notes that the items listed "will be the focus of our efforts."