20 CFR 404.1049 – Payments under an employer plan or system
(a) Payments to, or on behalf of, you or any of your dependents under your employer’s plan or system are excluded from wages if made because of your or your dependents’—
(1) Medical or hospitalization expenses connected with sickness or accident disability; or
(2) Death, except that the exclusion does not apply to payments for group-term life insurance to the extent that the payments are includible in the gross income of the employee under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, effective with respect to group-term life insurance coverage in effect after 1987 for employees whose employment, for the employer (or successor of that employer) providing the insurance coverage, does not end prior to 1989. Such payments are wages, however, if they are for coverage for an employee who was separated from employment prior to January 1, 1989, if the payments are for any period for which the employee is reemployed by the employer (or successor of that employer) after the date of separation.
(b) Payments to you or your dependents under your employer’s plan at or after the termination of your employment relationship because of your death or retirement for disability are excluded from wages.
(c) Payments made after 1983 to you or your dependents under your employer’s plan at or after the termination of your employment relationship because of retirement after reaching an age specified in the plan or in a pension plan of the employer are not excluded from wages unless—
(1) The payments are to or from a trust or annuity plan of your employer as described in § 404.1052; or
(2) An agreement to retire was in effect on March 24, 1983, between you and your employer and the payments made after 1983 under a nonqualified deferred compensation plan (see § 404.1042(f)) are based on services performed for your employer before 1984.
(d) The plan or system established by the employer must provide for the employees generally or for a class or classes of employees. The plan or system may also provide for these employees’ dependents. Payments under a plan or system established only for your dependents are not excluded from wages. The plan or system established by the employer can provide for payments on account of one or more of the items in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.
(e) For purposes of this section, your dependents include your husband or wife, children, and any other members of your immediate family.
(f) It does not make any difference that the benefit payments are considered in arriving at the amount of your pay or are required by the employment agreement.