We have a client, Mr. X, who owns 100% of Corp A. He has no retirement plan for Corp A. All the assets of Corp A are sold to Corp B in May 2001. Corp A is now just a shell with no employees, and Mr. X has no ties to Corp B. In fact Mr. X is unemployed. Mr. X wants to run the proceeds of the Corp A sale through as W-2 earnings for himself. The proceeds from the sale do not come in until June 2001. Mr. X wants to set up a MPP/PS plan effective 6/1/01 for Corp A with him being the sole participant. I keep seeing red flags. Will this fly?

Are the receipts from the sale recorded on the books of Corp. A? Does A have taxable income from that?

Is X performing services? If not, then how does X expect to be paid W-2 income?

We had the same situation presented to us a few years ago,and asked the same questions that pax raised.The answer we got was that they (we had five former owners rather than just one) had already discussed this with their CPA firm and they were comfortable with doing this. The payout period is now over and the plan has been terminated. FWIW,their attorney submitted the plan term to IRS and got an approval letter.