Governmental entity has 401a plan that excludes overtime and bonus from compensation. Is this subject to same non-discrimination testing as non-governmental entity with 401a plan?? Thanks.

I have no experience with 457 plans, but a question came to me. A governmental 457 plan excludes overtime and bonus from compensation. Is this subject to the same discrimination testing as a 401(a) plan?? Thanks.

A DB Plan sponsored by law firm is terminated. The multiple owners each own less than 50% of the partnership. Full benefits paid to non-owner rank/file employees. The owners wish to waive all or a portion of their benefits due under plan (it meets the funding requirements but the Plan is not fully funded to pay all benefits to owners).

Plan being reviewed by PBGC now. PBGC generally accepts these "waivers" but only if the owner is a majority owner (more than 50%). PBGC willing to accept these waivers if the owners have the ability to possibly become a majority owner such as if the Firm allows owners to buyout other owners. However, the firm does not allow owners to purchase other owners interest in the firm when they leave, rather their interest goes back to the general partnership - which as I understand - is the more common scenario.

Has anyone been faced with this issue and have they been able to get the PBGC to accept the "waivers" regardless of the majority ownership issue?

I realize there are IRS issues as well - but right now dealing with the PBGC.

Thanks

If a plan participant defaults on a loan which is treated as a deemed distribution and reported as such, what happens when the participant later takes an actual distribution of his account balance (assuming he never repaid his loan after it was deemed distributed)? For example, if a participant had a deemed distribution of $5,000 and upon actual distribution of his account balance the account consisted of $60,000 cash and the $5,000 loan receivable, does the participant receive the entire $60,000 cash or is the loan receivable offset so that the participant receives only $55,000 cash upon distribution? If the former is true and the participant is to receive $60,000 cash, why does anyone ever pay back a loan after a deemed distribution? If the latter is true, how is the amount taxed considering that the regs provide that the participant has no basis in his plan related to the $5,000 deemed distribution and appear to provide that the participant has $60,000 of gross income.

Can a Simple 401k plan allow for designated Roth contributions?

They want to start administering the plan without an agreement during a "discovery period". We question "what's to discover?" This is just routine administration. We don't see why we can't have an agreement before they take over.

Has anybody had an issue with them over this?

I have a client who wants the following safe harbor formula: 300% of the first 1%, then 100% of the next 5%.

With the ACP safe harbor requirement that the plan limit the actual match to no more than 4% of comp, is there anything wrong with stating the formula this way? I suggested they use the regular enhanced formula with an addt'l discretionary match but they insist on the formula stated above.

Any thoughts?

I need some input. I have a profit sharing plan that funds their contributions monthly. However in order to receive you have to be there on the last day of the plan year. Therefore anyone who terminates mid year has to give back every contribution they received through the year (no earnings are considered), even if they are 100% vested. Basically the client is making the participants meet "eligibility" every year. So this would technically make the contribution an ineligible contribution. The contributions are not considered "forfeiture". They are reallocated among the remaining participants immediately. I have never come across this scenario in 10 years of recordkeeping and am not sure how to go forward.

And, the formula that they use is 10% of compensation up to 120,000. If the comp is over 120,000, it's 20% up to the max contribution limit of 49,000. Is there any guidance out there in regards to last day rules and funding contributions other than annually?

This is a group of doctors and support staff.

I am seeing conflicting information on whether the various employers in a multiple employer plan can have different age/service conditions and different vesting schedules. I realize that all service must be counted for all employers for these purposes, but is it permissible for each adopting employer to use a different eligibility or vesting provision than the sponsoring employer?

I took a look at 1.415(g) on plan disqualification to try to guess what happens if a qualified plan is established during a year in which a SIMPLE 401(k) exists.

One section says the employer chooses which plan goes out first, but another section says if a simple plan exists, it goes last (that is, the qualified plan is disqualified first!)

Is this the general understanding? I know there was a thread on this a while ago, but my search criteria was of no help in finding it. Bad (too general) keywords I think.

Thanks all.

We have a client who established a profit sharing plan effective in 2010 but never made any contributions to it so there are no assets. Should we still prepare a 5500?

We have an unfortunate situation with respect to a takeover plan.

The prior TPA (now retired) was supposed to send us a number of takeover documents that the client did not keep copies of but now the owner of the TPA firm won't return anyone's calls or e-mails (we had spoken with him about six months ago and he said he was going to send us everything but he never did). We've tried sending letters certified / return receipt mail, etc. and everything has been signed for by someone in the household so we know he's aware of what's going on but he won't send us the documents we need in order to take over the plan.

The client recently had their attorney write the former TPA a demand letter but so far there has been no response.

Any thoughts on what to do in this situation?

Can anyone clarify the requirement in PPA for a DB sponsor to post the Schedule SB on an "intranet used for the purpose of communicating with employees" if it has one? There has been no guidance from DOL regarding this that we are aware of, and now have a client asking the question.

I received the following question from one of my clients.....

A participant has applied for a hardship withdrawal. She wishes to take it from her Roth account (403(b) Plan). Based on the IRS Q&A that I viewed on line, the withdrawal will be prorated between Roth contribution basis and earnings. That was not what I was expecting, given that the maximum withdrawal is limited to the participant’s career-to-date contribution total.

Please let me know if you see anything different about the basis/earning proration."

Can anyone comment on this question or provide a response?

What are the implications if a Recordkeeper does not display the vesting/vested balance, or a disclosure that they are unable to provide an accurate vested balance on the quarterly participant statements?

Let's say that the total excess asset is $100,000 and that all of it was transferred to a qualified replacement plan. I understand that 25% is exempt from the 20% excise tax. How is the other 75% reported and treated?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

An employer has contributed more than the 25% deductible limit for 2010. The contribution was made in 2011, so they can use the excess toward their 2011 safe harbor liability.

My question is: Does the 25% limit apply to deductibility only? Are they allowed to contribute more than 25%, even if they don't deduct the excess?

I know it would be crazy to contribute more than you can deduct, but is it allowed? Everywhere I look just refers to the 25% limit as the maximum an employer can deduct.

thanks

Hi I am quite new to administering 412(i) plans and have only bookish knowledge about this and I have an issue.The plan was designed at the participants age of 58 and he was supposed to make only 7 payments(age 65) which was fulfilled in the year 2009.but he has gone ahead and made contributions for the year 2010 and 2011 even before consulting (extra 2 payments) and the amount in question being $220,000 is there any recourse to this and save him from taxation he is nearing 68 now..Requesting an answer ASAP

My employer has had a SEP plan for about 25 years and I've recently discovered that about 20 of our employees are not enrolled in the SEP plan. Some say they have never heard of it, others don't want it and many just claim they don't understand it and that is why they have never enrolled. Regardless of the reason, we have about 20 current employees who are not enrolled.

1. How do others get employees enrolled?

2. What do we do about employees who no longer work for us but were eligible to participate and didn't?

3. What are we liable for and how do we correct this problem?

My understanding is that everyone must participate and that we must go back and fund the missing money plus interest...but I could be WAY off here.

Any advice and suggestions are welcome, as this is a newer role for me.

Thanks!

Plan allows for installments for someone who retires or terminates after age 55. Suppose someone 55 elects installments and then two years later is rehired. Does your plan stop the installments? Do you have a process for this with the recordkeeper? Does your plan allow the installments to continue for the pre-termination money and set up a new account for the rehire deferrals?