A client just received refunds from insurance carriers in New York. NY Insurance Refunds"]NY Health Insurance Refunds[/url]

Any thoughts on how these items should be treated by the employer?

Thanks.

Can anyone explain the individual notice requirement under 8955-SSA that requires notice of any benefits that are forfeitable if the participant dies before a certain date (See IRC Section 6057(e))? What would be an example of such an occurrence?

Cross-tested PS only plan fails a4 testing. Owner 50. Three employees ages 55, 63, 23. Need 2 ees with higher EBARs than the owner if all employees tested together.

Can I restructure into component plans:

A) owner, two employees ages 55 and 23 on benefits basis

B) 63 year old employee on a contribution basis

Thanks for any input!

It is 1/5/2012 ....... Can an employer amend their Safe Harbor 401(k) plan effective 1/1/2012 to go from a 1 yr plan eligibility to an immediate plan eligibility effective immediately or would they need to wait until the 2013 plan year.

Thanks

Situation is following: plan provides for deferrals, 3% non-elective safe harbor, and a cross-tested profit sharing plan. Safe Harbor is provided to all participants. Daughter of owners now eligible for plan in 2011. She is in her own class for the PS component; unfortunately she is by far the youngest participant (HCE and NHCE) so testing is a problem.

Usually when running Ratio Percentage, Non-Discriminatory Classification and Gateway testing have aggregated the SH and PS contributions together. Generally is more favorable result and usually provides for lower Gateway contribution since can take into account the SH component (say if 3% SH, 12% highest PS allocation to HCE, then aggregate Gateway for NHCEs would be 5% - 3% = 2% PS to NCHEs; if ignore SH, Gateway PS would be 4%). However this young HCE is killing things.

In looking at 401(k) final regulations, see following in 1.401(k)-3(h)(2):

Use of safe harbor nonelective contributions to satisfy other nondiscrimination tests. A safe harbor nonelective contribution used to satisfy the nonelective contribution requirement under paragraph (b) of this section may also be taken into account for purposes of whether a plan satisfies section 401(a)(4).

I focus on that all-important word "may" in the preceding. Would it be permissible to run my Cross-Testing in this situation by only taking into account the Profit Sharing contribution for ratio percentage, non-discriminatory classification and gateway testing (Average Benefits Test would of course include all sources: deferrals, Safe Harbor, and Profit Sharing for the 70% of HCE <= NHCE average) or am I reading into "may" too much here? Don't have a problem with providing a higher PS contribution for gateway by ignoring Safe Harbor as initial results were horrible.

Any thoughts?

The IRS has not posted the funding segment rates for a valuation beginning in 2012 (specifically 1/1/2012).

Is it posted somewhere else for 2012?

Prior years are found here

http://www.irs.gov/retirement/article/0,,id=174520,00.html

line 6a says report those REQUIRED to be reported

line 6b says report those Voluntarily reported

line 7 is the sum of two.

ok..... the instructions say for line 6a provide " the total number of participants entitled .........under the plan in 2009 AND WHO WERE NOT REPORTED ON THE 2008 SCHEDULE SSA." What about those coded "D"? They were reported on 2008 as "A" and will now be reported on 2009 8955 as "D" -- SHOULD THEY BE COUNTED HERE?

I really want this line 7 number to match the number of participants reported -- regardless of the code -- but that is really not what the instructions say. PLEASE HELP!

Does anyone have any experience with filing Form 8928 to report COBRA failures and to pay excise taxes? Has anyone requested a waiver of excise taxes?

This is outside my practice expertise.

Doctor owns 100% of an S-corporation. Doctor is an HCE with respect to the S-corporation, his salary averages about $400,000 per year. S-corporation provides medical services (dermatology) to patients. S-corporation has a 401(k) plan. S-corporation has additional employees.

Doctor's spouse owns 100% of an LLC. LLC is taxed as a sole proprietorship. LLC is engaged in the business of providing clinical trial studies to independent, unrelated, third party drug companies. The LLC hires the Doctor as an independent contractor to perform the study. The LLC has no employees and the spouse will have self-employment income equal to the LLC's profit.

Spouse is not an employee or officer of the S-corporation, and the Doctor is not an employee or officer of the LLC.

Spouse desires to have a solo 401(k).

The S-corp and the LLC do not provide services to each other, but the LLC does provide services typically performed by dermatologists (clinical trials).

Does this structure work under the affiliated service group or controlled group rules, including the relevent attributions rules?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

-Alan S.

Folks,

Incredibly useful site. Would appreciate any input one can provide on my situation.

I am in a very fortunate situation of having two employment contracts with distinct employers and sizable self-employment income as well. I am prone to save as much as possible in retirement plans, mainly to achieve as much tax deferred investment as possible. Thus far, I have the following plans established:

1) Employer 1 (<100K income): 403B. I contribute the maximum (was 16,500, now 17,000) and my employer contributes ~20K (capped at this for my age group).

2) Employer 2: 401K, to start this upcoming July, 2012 after 1 year of service. I can contribute $17,000 to this with a full match to 49 or 50K (whatever the maximum is). I assume I will have to cease contributing to my 403B with my other employer so as not to exceed maximum employee contributions across plans.

3) Employer 2 also offers a 457B, to which I have not started contributing, but would like to. I assume I can make these contributions exclusive of the 403(b)/401K contributions (I will not be contributing to both the 403 and 401K starting July 1)? Is this assumption correct?

4) Self-employment: I have established a defined benefit plan for myself with target income of ~130K at age 62 and contributed ~100K for 2011. Actuarial assumptions not available for 2012.

5) I also contribute each year to a non-deductible traditional IRA for me and my homemaker wife, which I assume I can make.

Are my assumptions correct for the above scenario and am I taking maximum advantage of retirement plan contributions? Am I overlooking anything or in violation of any IRS rules? Any advice you sages can provided would be most appreciated.

Many thanks in advance!

SR

Folks,

Incredibly useful site. Would appreciate any input one can provide on my situation.

I am in a very fortunate situation of having two employment contracts with distinct employers and sizable self-employment income as well. I am prone to save as much as possible in retirement plans, mainly to achieve as much tax deferred investment as possible. Thus far, I have the following plans established:

1) Employer 1 (<100K income): 403B. I contribute the maximum (was 16,500, now 17,000) and my employer contributes ~20K (capped at this for my age group).

2) Employer 2: 401K, to start this upcoming July, 2012 after 1 year of service. I can contribute $17,000 to this with a full match to 49 or 50K (whatever the maximum is). I assume I will have to cease contributing to my 403B with my other employer so as not to exceed maximum employee contributions across plans.

3) Employer 2 also offers a 457B, to which I have not started contributing, but would like to. I assume I can make these contributions exclusive of the 403(b)/401K contributions (I will not be contributing to both the 403 and 401K starting July 1)? Is this assumption correct?

4) Self-employment: I have established a defined benefit plan for myself with target income of ~130K at age 62 and contributed ~100K for 2011. Actuarial assumptions not available for 2012.

5) I also contribute each year to a non-deductible traditional IRA for me and my homemaker wife, which I assume I can make.

Are my assumptions correct for the above scenario and am I taking maximum advantage of retirement plan contributions? Am I overlooking anything or in violation of any IRS rules? Any advice you sages can provided would be most appreciated.

Many thanks in advance!

SR

been awhile since I posted this report.

this version of the census report should provide a variety of 'warnings'

1. years from term date to report year end. (added this due to the number of takeovers we've done and forget to enter break in svc years. this should only print if ee has been gone at least 4 years to find people who should possibly forfeit)

2. ee has prior year term date but current comp /hours. must be a rehire that was imported

3. message if ee is age 69 or older (for possible min distribution)

4. Date of birth warning (rare, but I've seen bad centuries from time to time from an import)

5. NRD check - just in case someone's birthdate has changed for whatever reason. e.g. if it was 1970 and it was corrected to 1980, the system won't change the retirement date unless specifically told to recalc during eligibiility)

6. comp is 0 but the person is still active. guess they didn't tell you the person quit in the prior year.

7. inactive or ineligible, but no reason is given

8. inactive but no status date.

Does anyone know where I can find information on what needs to be done if the single Trustee of a 401(k) Plan dies suddenly?

We have a client in an Affiliated Service Group (A-org). The A-org sponsors a SEP IRA that covers the 2 employees of the A-org and the FSO sponsors a traditional 401K (ADP test) that covers the 50 employees of the FSO. Thanks to Derrin Watson's Who's the Employer, I believe I understand correctly that members of an Affiliated Service Group can sponsor different plans with different levels of benefits as long as they can pass covergae testing separately (but must include employees of all ASG members in testing). But how would this work when there is a SEP and 401K? Does a SEP even test coverage or is it just required that any employee of all employers in ASG that meet the SEP's eligibility requirements receive a SEP contribution? Can you aggregate a SEP and 401K for coverage or nondiscrimination testing? If so, how would that work?

I don't work with SEP's or Affiliated Service Group very often so I appreciate any guidance you can give.

We have a 1/15/2012 quarterly contribution due

Someone in my office mentioned a 30 day grace period for each quarterly where you don't have to worry about giving participants notice of msisign the date?

Happy New Year!!!

Does anyone know of any software that can be used to manage a private equity plan? We are a small company, with only about 28 participants at this point, but poised to expand and looking to be ready. Seems silly that my Chief HR Officer is sending out manually prepared statements for our program.

Any assistance appreciated!

Thanks...Sheila K

12/31 plan is very top-heavy. Can I change Plan Year-End to 3/1/12 - 2/28/13 (short plan year from 1/1/12 to 2/28/12), or is that just plain crazy?

A spousal bene missed taking a rmd in 2008 and 2010. This was due to admin error by recordkeeper

All RMD's were made in 2011. Did earnings have to be calculated on the missed RMD's?

In what year are the missed RMD's taxed ? In 2080 and 2010, when they should have been made? or when they were received?

A Participant has been receiving $600 per month under a 100% Joint and Survivor Annuity. Five years later the Participant's account is audited and it is found he was overpaid by $100 per month ($700 rather than $600) for 60 months or $6,000. The Participant then dies. What is the survivor's benefit, $600 or a survivor benefit of $600 reduced for the overpayments?

Hi everyone! I am scheduled to take the ERPA test part 1 on the 25th of January and was wondering if anyone who has already taken it has any tips or any extra study material to share? I did a review course through Sungard which gave a sample test of 160 questions and a powerpoint of the main topics to be tested. The test / info was written by Sungard attorneys, not the actual ERPA test writers. I know you can buy sample tests from aire.org but wondered if anyone didn't get there study materials from aire.org and studied on their own and how you did?? Any sugesstions would be appreciated! Thanks!