In the news section today. PTIN is not required for enrollment. But, it is required if you work on any form not on the excluded list.

http://benefitslink.com/src/irs/notice2011-91.pdf

Do participant statements have to be mailed direct to participant address or can they be mailed to the plan sponsor or to the plan's advisor for distribution? We have a few sponsors and advisors who receive the participant statements for distribution but recently ran accross some information from a compliance answer team that states that the delivery must be direct to participant homes. Is this true?

Thank you!

MR B

Are parent corporations allowed to make matches conditional upon its subsidiaries satisfying certain conditions? For example, a parent corporation will make a match if subsidiary corp. meets a certain level of safety requirements, customer service, etc.? I have not found any guidance on point on this issue. Any comments appreciated!

Just wanted to verify if SSA is required to be filed for Cash Balance plans. I took over a plan where there are prior year terms with balances. Looking on past 5500's some were not reported on SSA.

Is the SSA required to be filed for ESOPs? Recently took over an ESOP plan. Looking at the census there are quite a few employees who terminated in prior years and still carry a balance (which would be expected in an ESOP). Some of these participants where reported on SSA but most were not, which made it confusing. Working on the 2009-2010 plan years not and want to make sure everyone is reported, if needed.

A plan terminated and was fully distributed. The plan sponsor went out of business. Years later, assets belonging to the plan were found. How can these assets be allocated and distributed to participants when the plan and the plan sponsor no longer exist?

Suppose you have a small DB plan that has existed for 5 years and has been top heavy all of those years. The plan is not frozen. Assume there are no former key employees. All non-keys have received top heavy minimums of 10% (2% x 5 years).

The benefit formula is amended to reduce the benefit for the one key employee. The key employee benefits are grandfathered of course. The key employee will not experience a benefit increase for years 6, 7, and 8 due to the reduced benefit formula. Is the plan required to provide top heavy minimum benefits for years 6,7 and 8?

Section 416©(1)(B)(i) indicates 2 percent multiplied by the number of years of service with the employer.

Section 416©(1)© defines years of service and 416©(1)©(iii) provides the following exception:

Exception for plan under which no key employee (or former key employee) benefits for the plan year. For purposes of determining an employee's years of service with the employer, any service with the employer shall be disregarded to the extent that such service occurs during a plan year when the plan benefits (within the meaning of 410(b)) no key employee or former key employee.

I thought the Form 5500 series for 2011 was already out, but I can't find any 2011 DOL Forms. Have they been released and if not, when's the expected release date?

John (who is under 50) worked for ABC Company from 1/1/09-2/28/09 and deferred $5,000. He was then hired by DEF Company on 4/1/09 and worked for them though 12/31/09. He deferred $15,000. He terminated with them on 1/2/10.

DEF did all their testing and closed filed their 5500 on time. John calls up DEF on 11/3/11 (over a year later) and tells them that he exceeded his 415 limit (according to his CPA). He still has a balance in the DEF Plan. What does DEF do? Would it be any different if we were speaking about the 2010 Plan Year? What about the 2008 Plan Year (as it would be over two years)?

Thank you.

I have a client with an individual who was actively participating in a safe harbor 401(k) plan. This person terminated and then was rehired several years later. From what I have researched it appears this former (and newly rehired) employee immediately gets back into the plan and can begin deferrals and receive the safe harbor match.

1. Is there agreement on that assessment?

2. The client is asking if there is an amount of time that must lapse before prior service is disregarded.

From what I am reading the break in service rules only apply to employer contributions. Is it true an 401(k) participant that is rehired is immediately eligible to participate regardless of how long ago they terminated? Is there anything I can provide the client with in writing that supports this?

Thanks

Submitted Determination Package on January 31, 2009.

Received Determination Letter today.

Nearly three years.

Company has DB Plan and DC Plan, general tested in aggregate. DB plan covers only 2 owners. DC plan covers 4 NHCE staff. DB plan has 2 year wait/100% and DC plan has 1 year wait/6 yr graded vesting.

I think we may have a benefits, rights & features concern with respect to eligibility and/or vesting. Does anyone agree with me? On eligibility, vesting, or both?

Dog

Have a plan that terminated January 31, 2008. At that time, we prepared the termination minutes as well as a PPA Good Faith Amendment, Amendments regarding the NRA and Heinz Decision and the other Interim Amendmentd due at the time. We have just been informated that unbeknownst to us, the plan has not distributed it's assets as of yet but because the plan has still been active, do we have to do a full blown document restatement now for PPA even though we did the Good Faith Amendment and all the Interims?

Are there any amendments due before year-end for Corbel prototypes? I think I would have known, but I can't recall a year without any amendments...

I have a doctor client who is 1/3 owner in a MRI diagnostic clinic. The clinic ownes the diagnostic equipment that the doctor uses. The clinic has one employee who works strictly for the clinic and does not provide any services for the individual doctor's practices. The salary for the employee is paid by the clinic and the doctors do not pay any of the expenses of the clinic. What if anything would make this an affiliated service?

We administer a 401(k) plan (not safe harbor) where the profit sharing allocation is cross-tested (everyone is in a separate group) & the plan's eligiblity is age 21, 1 year of service, semi-annual entry. There is also a prevailing wage component to the plan but, of course, there is no age or service requirement to receive prevailing wage contributions. The owner has two sons: one is eligible for the 401(k) plan and participates & receives prevailing wage contributions, and the other (let's call him X) is not yet 21 so he isn't eligible to participate in the 401(k) plan. During the current plan year X began working prevailing wage jobs and received almost a 40% of pay prevailing wage contribution.

The client has requested a profit sharing illustration but I need some clarification on who and what to include when I'm running the proposed cross-tested allocation. It appears that:

1. I am including both profit sharing and prevailing wage contributions in the average benefits test (and also 401(k) deferrals in my average benefits percentage test)

2. It would appear that I need to include all employees that are eligible for the 401(k) plan, plus those employees not eligible for the 401(k) plan but that are prevailing wage employees, in the test. So I would include X (owner's son) which would appear to make it impossible for any sort of cross-tested profit sharing allocation to be non-discriminatory.

Are there any other testing options that would help in this situation, or is there a way to exclude X from the test (or maybe my understanding is incorrect and X shouldn't be in the test in the first place)? Any thoughts on this would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm filing a PBGC Form 10 for missed contributions. I have been all over the PBGC website and the Form 10 instructions trying to determine whether or not there is a mandatory employee notice that needs to go out. Since I cannot find anything, I'm assuming there is no employee notice required. Can anyone confirm this?

On the IRS Website this morning is the newly released 2010 Form 8955-SSA.

Are we still allowed to file using paper? I tried clicking on instructions by got an error message "not available".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

DPSRICH

PPACA limits the ability of plans to have annual limits on essential health benefits. Is that calculated on an aggregate basis (so, as long as plan doesn't exceed the annual limit for all essential health benefits, it is okay) or is it applied on a benefit-by benefit basis (so, for instance, a plan can't have a $xxx annual limit on occupational therapy, assuming OT is an essential health benefit)?

I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.

An association of employers, with membership compirsed of businessed in a metro area in a specific commercial enterprise, used to bargain for a single CBA covering union workers at any of the member organizations. Plan is a PSP/401(k). Now, each of the employers bargains for its own CBA with the union. Does the association continue to maintain a multiemployer plan for these individual employer CBAs covering union workers, or do we now have a multiple employer plan comprised of separate employers adopting the association's plan for just their CBA-covered employees?

I think that ERISA Section 3(37) & IRC Section 414(f) require that this type of an arrangement (effective after the enactment of MPPAA) be a multiemployer plan (not multiple employer). Anyone agree or disagree?