Situation is that dual status county hospital adopted a 457b top hat plan. Some kind of misunderstanding with the 501©(3) status and governmental status. So now they propose to convert the tophat plan into a governmental plan, to avoid plan termination and taxation to the executives. I am unclear on how to convert an unfunded top hat plan. I could see freezing the plan and allowing payouts as employees terminate, and adopt a new 457b governmental plan.

Does anyone have any thoughts and any other ideas?

Thanks!!

Does the definition of "employee" for purposes of IRC Secs. 105 and 106 inlcude "former employees" (i.e., retirees)? And, if so, what can I cite to for this proposition? Many thanks!

We have three SARs to mail (401k, pension, VEBA). Can we combine them into one mailing, and mail to a combined mailing list? This would mean that some would receive a SAR who are not an actual 'participant' for one or possibly two of the plans. I cannot find any documentation that says we cannot send a SAR to additional people other than participants.

Thank you for any assistance or direction you can provide.

I am working on a Cash Balance Plan with an offset Profit Sharing Plan. I understand the Profit Sharing allocation must be allocated on a uniform bases in order to satisfy the requirements, but does the "uniform" apply to both the HCE's as well as the NHCE's?

The Employer has two Owners who wish to participate in the Cash Balance Plan and are willing to contribute the Safe Harbor 7.5% Profit Sharing allocation to the NHCE's in the Profit Sharing Plan. They would like, however, not to contribute the 7.5% for the other two HCE's in the Plan. Is this possible or does this violate the "uniform" clause?

Our small DB plan just filed its Form 5500 on October 15. So is the new annual funding notice due within 30 days?

I find the news regarding this fascinating:

A large rally was scheduled for central Paris in the afternoon as demonstrators stepped up protests against a government proposal to raise the national retirement age from 60 to 62.

.......

and in this country they talk about raising the SSRA from age 67.

...............

...About 1.1 million people have demonstrated across the country, French media quoted police as saying. Unions put the figure at 3.5 million nationwide as the rolling strike goes on for more than a week now.

Students from high schools have been skipping classes to join the strikes. Some students told CNN in Paris that they are worried they won't be able to get jobs if the current generation hangs onto jobs for an extra two years.

..........

I must have been out of it in when I was in high school. I never would have thought about skipping school to strike because I might not be able to find a job. looked it up, unemployment there around 10%

If no action is taken the rest of this year, does the $500/$1,500 plan start-up employer credit go away as of 1/1/2011?

Thanks

Apparently, the question of whether forfeitures may be used to reduce safe harbor contributions to a plan was discussed in an IRS Q&A session today at the ASPPA Annual Conference. Did anyone hear the exact response?

Deferral plan provides that value of participant's account balance is based on value of employer's privately held stock. Employer does not have valuations for any other purpose, so plan provides that value of stock will be determined by valuation method established by employer in good faith.

Does the reservation of discretion regarding stock valuation cause a problem, particularly with the language in 1.409A-3(i)(1)(i) and (ii) regarding amounts being objectively determinable and not being subject to the service recipient's discretion? The specific issue would be whether the discretion causes the payment amounts not to be objectively determinable (language from -3(i)(1)(i)) or not subject to an "objective nondiscretionary formula" (langage from -3(i)(1)(ii)), and thus not payable at a specified time or pursuant to a fixed schedule.

A small professional service employer had a DB plan for 5 years, terminated it and distributed benefits by 12/31/09.

They are now seeing the tax bite of not having the plan and want to adopt a new DB plan effective for 2010.

Is there a problem adopting a new plan within one year of terminating the prior plan?

If a frozen cash balance plan uses an interest crediting rate that is in excess of a "market rate of return" under the final and proposed regs that were just issued, does the frozen plan have to recalculate benefits for all participants using the lower interest rate? If so, for what years would the lower interest rate be applied?

I have calculated the gains on the late deposits for one of our clients. The total earnings that they need to remit excise tax on is approx. $1300.00. On the Form 5330, do we need to report each individual late remittance separately? Some of the gains calculations are so small on an individual principal amount ($1.00 or less) that was late that no tax is actually due on it.

Is it permitted to report the late payments as a monthly total rather than each individual amount on its loss date?

I'm a TPA that administers 125 plans. I have a partnership that has a 125 plan. I've been notified that the partners have changed (one partner left, another came on) so there is a new name, and the partnership has a new tax ID number. All other group info remains the same. Do they need a new 125 plan, or just amend the current plan? Thanks for any direction.

Group of Drs each with their own Corporation and each Corporation adopts the Cash Balance Plan. The corporations have fiscal years from 10/31, 11/30 and 12/31. The Plan is a calendar Year. How are the deductions determined for each Corporation.

We just updated Relius Gov't Forms from sp4 to the current one. We waiting until after 10/15 since things seem to be working.

I noticed on the plan info sheet that the "Filing for Plan Year" comes up with an error if left blank. The help on this form say that it must be answered if filing for a plan year prior to 2009. Is everyone just putting 2009 if it's for the 2009 plan year?

Can an IRA LLC (the sole member of which is the IRA custodian for the benefit of the taxpayer) receive a rollover of the taxpayer's qualified plan benefit without violating the prohibited transaction rules?

Taxpayer is getting ready to take 2010 MRD from Retirement Plan/IRA. Question is if the taxpayer decides to convert a portion of the IRA to a Roth, does the conversion satisfy the 2010 MRD requirement? I looked through the questions and do not see this addressed. Thanks for any replies.

A plan has immediate eligibility for full time employees. Part Time Employees must work 1000 hours to be eligible for the plan. When running the coverage test, how do I count the part time employees. Non-excludable, not benefiting since none of them worked 1000 hours? Or are they excluded since they did not meet 1000 hours? Would it raise a BRF issue since the "right" to defer is delayed for this group/class of employees?

Any help would be appreciated!

Does anyone know if these figures were released yet and if so, where i can find them?

Although there was no COLA change from '09-'10 there was still some modifications to the phase out limits, I need to determine if 2011 will see another slight increase.

Thanks!

I work with DC plans, but am in a DB plan at my part time job. The company removes 7 cents for every hour I work each weekly pay period and puts it in the plan. In order to be vested, I must work at least 750 hours per year for 4 years that I am a participant. Any service prior to becoming a participant does not count.

I started in the plan in August 2004. I have only worked between about 600 - 650 hours per year, as I only work 2 days a week over there. Since I never work enough hours each year, I don't earn the vested service. You can become vested by reaching a monetary plateau, of which I am almost halfway there.

My main question is that I thought it was required that DB plans issued statements to participants at least every three years. I get the SAR, but have never gotten a statement in the 6 years I have been in the plan. Shouldn't I be getting something, even though I am not vested, as I am putting money in this plan ($244.34 as of 7/8/2010)?

My part-time employer is one of the largest employers here in central FL and we do have a company intranet, but I have never been able to find info on the plan specfic to me here.

Thanks for your thoughts.