Retirement, relief and energy

Four years, five laws

None of these was a tax reform in the 1986 or 2017 sense, but together they changed more returns than most reforms do. Two were retirement laws, two were pandemic relief, and one was an energy and health law. Most of the pandemic provisions were temporary and are gone; most of the retirement provisions are permanent and still arriving; and the energy credits were cut short by the 2025 law.

2019: the SECURE Act

• Required minimum distributions moved from age 70½ to 72.
• The end of the stretch IRA. Most non-spouse heirs of an IRA must now empty it within ten years rather than over their own lifetimes — and, if the owner had already started RMDs, take a distribution each year as well. Spouses, minor children, the disabled and heirs close in age still get the old rule. This changed inheritance planning more than any other provision of the decade. See inherited IRAs.
• No age limit on contributing to a traditional IRA; 529 money usable for student loans; the 2018 “kiddie tax” change reversed.

2020: the CARES Act and the December relief bill

• Stimulus payments of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child in the spring, and $600 per person in January 2021, reconciled on the 2020 return as the recovery rebate credit; no one had to repay an overpayment.
• 2020 required distributions waived, and up to $100,000 could be taken from retirement accounts penalty-free with the tax spread over three years.
• The Paycheck Protection Program: forgivable loans for payroll, with the forgiveness tax-free and — after Congress overrode the IRS in December — the expenses still deductible.
• The employee retention credit, worth up to $5,000 per employee for 2020 and $7,000 per employee per quarter for most of 2021. It was later the subject of so many inflated claims that the IRS froze processing in 2023, and the 2025 law barred late claims for the last two quarters of 2021.
• Losses from 2018–2020 could be carried back five years; a $300 charitable deduction for non-itemizers; 100% deductible restaurant meals for 2021 and 2022; the drafting error on building improvements fixed.

2021: the American Rescue Plan

• A third payment of $1,400 per person including dependents of any age.
• The 2021 child tax credit: $3,600 per child under 6 and $3,000 per child 6 to 17, fully refundable, with half paid in monthly deposits from July to December and reconciled on the return. For 2021 only; the credit went back to $2,000 in 2022.
• The 2021 dependent care credit raised to as much as $8,000; the first $10,200 of 2020 unemployment benefits made tax-free in the middle of filing season; the earned income credit for workers without children roughly tripled for 2021; the Marketplace premium credit expanded for 2021 and 2022.
• The $600 threshold for Form 1099-K on Venmo, PayPal and eBay payments — delayed by the IRS three times and finally repealed by the 2025 law before it ever fully took effect. The threshold is back at $20,000 and 200 transactions. See Form 1099-K.

2022: the Inflation Reduction Act

• Clean vehicle credits of up to $7,500 new and $4,000 used, with price and income caps, from 2023 — ended for vehicles bought after September 30, 2025.
• Home energy credits: 30% of solar, batteries and geothermal with no cap, and up to $1,200 a year for windows, doors and insulation plus $2,000 for a heat pump — ended for property placed in service after December 31, 2025.
• The Marketplace premium credit enhancement extended through 2025; a 15% minimum tax on corporations with over $1 billion of book income; a 1% tax on stock buybacks; about $80 billion of IRS funding over ten years, since partly rescinded.

2022: SECURE 2.0

• RMDs at 73 for people born 1951 to 1959, and 75 for those born in 1960 or later. The penalty for missing one cut from 50% to 25%, or 10% if corrected quickly.
• Roth catch-up contributions required from 2026 for employees who earned more than $145,000 (indexed) the prior year — the extra contribution after age 50 no longer reduces current taxable income for them.
• A larger catch-up at ages 60 to 63 from 2025; leftover 529 money movable to the beneficiary’s Roth IRA, up to $35,000; automatic enrollment required for new plans; the IRA catch-up and the charitable distribution limit indexed; penalty-free emergency withdrawals of $1,000 a year.

What it meant

A family with two young children and $60,000 of income received $7,200 of child credit for 2021, half of it as $600 monthly deposits, plus a $5,600 payment — and then a confusing 2022 filing season when the credit went back to $2,000. A restaurant that kept its staff could stack a forgivable loan, deduct the payroll anyway and claim the retention credit, and then spent two years dealing with the IRS about it. Adult children inheriting a parent’s IRA now take it all into income within ten years, usually in their peak earning years. A homeowner who put in solar or a heat pump in 2024 got 30% back; one who does it in 2026 gets nothing.