Can someone please point to where "plan year" is defined in PPACA?

More then 10 years ago our firm had a consultant come in who did some research and gave us a report on how our fee schedule compared to others in our local area. The consultant specialized in Pension TPA business. This was useful not only in seeing how other firms structured their fee schedules (flat fee vs a la carte) but to see if we were consistently under or over the market. The firm that did the analysis for us no longer seems to be in business.

Is anyone aware of any other company that provides such a service?

Thank you.

If a person has retired and has absolutely no reportable income other than the income from Roth conversion, does his income from Roth conversion invite social security tax? The person in question does not qualify for social security benefits or any other usual retirement benefits.

Hello. I have two clients that are members of a controlled group. Both companies are owned 100% by the same 4 people in the same percentages. Each plan is a straight 401k plan. No match, no Profit Sharing. All aspects of the plan are the same. The owners were paid in both companies but only participated in one plan (and they were the only employees and participants in that plan). I do believe this might be a problem.

Each client each had their own GUST document. And each filed their own Form 5500. Is that okay? Should they be combined into a single EGTRRA Volume Submitter document?

Please advise. Thanks.

Medical office with about 25 ee's and 6 doc's, wants x-tested plan, however, a few doctors do not want to fund anything but the min and of course a few doctors want to fund the max. How / what would be the best option of classes for the doctors? The ee's are going to be in two classes - staff and management.

Thanks in advance.

The final 409A regulations contain 24 examples under 1.409A-2(b)(1)(9) on subsequent deferral elections but this scenario is not addressed:

Plan defines "payment date" as the later of participant reaching age 65, or his termination of employment.

On which event/date does the 5 year minimum subseqent deferral rule depend?

Participant is less than 1 year from his 65th birthday but plans on working another 5 to 10 years. He has over 40 years of service with the employer.

First, is there a substantial risk of forfeiture just due to the "later of" language and the participant's good faith intention to continue working? Does the fact that the participant is a substantial but not majority owner of the entity make any difference?

In other words does the plan on its face have to have a more material risk of forfeiture?

If so can the participant now change the definition of "Payment Date" to the later of age, say, 70, and completion of, say, 50 years of employment? Or just leave 65 as is, and make later trigger his "separation from service on or after completing 50 years of service"?

Any comments appreciated.

Have a profit sharing plan with a two year eligibility period and 100% vested immediately. The plan is cross-tested and a 5% gateway is provided to all non owner employees.

Suppose they want to change the plan to a safe harbor 401k with a 3% SH employer contribution.

They want to keep the two year eligibility for profit sharing.

They must provide the 3% SH to all employees with one year of service. Must those employees also be provided a 5% minimum gateway as those with two years of service do?

Thanks

My client purchased qualified Er securities with Roth deferrals and that stock has since appreciated. How do the net unrealized appreciation rules work with roth deferrals?

Plan details as follows:

Funding shortfall for 2010 : 250,000

Present value of prior years shrortfall charges : 300,000

new shortfall amortization base : (250,000-300,000) = -50,000

New shortfall installment : -8,000

Prior year's shortfall installment : 60,000

Total amortization installment for current year : (60,000-8,000) = 52,000

My question is that since current year shortfall is lower than PV of prior year’s charges, so there is a negative base and a negative amortization for current year. This in effect is reducing last year’s amortization installment. So should I leave a –ve base or should it be zeroed out as follows:

Funding shortfall for 2010 : 250,000

Present value of prior years shrortfall charges : 300,000

new shortfall amortization base : (250,000-300,000) = -50,000

New shortfall installment : 0

Prior year's shortfall installment : 60,000

Total amortization installment for current year : (60,000-8,000) = 60,000

Thanks in advance for all help in sorting out my confusion.

When should the trustee prohibit a participant from taking a distribution? Trustee knows an employee is about to be divorced, but no QDRO has been received, etc. OBviouly, participants who know a divorce is coming would have a significant incentive to close their accounts before a divorce...

There is a supreme court case that specifically says a multiemployer plan trustee must act solely in the interest of plan participants when wearing his fiduciary hat. See Amax, 453 U.S. 950. I am looking for cases in which a fund or participant has brought a fiduciary-breach case against either a labor or employer appointed trustee, where the plaintiff is alleging that the trustee has acted in the interest of the appointing party rather in the interest of the beneficiaries. Any law review articles or cases on point?

I am working with a plan that is allowing loans to be rolled over from a company that they acquired. Plan Sponsor would like to reamortize the loans due to missed payments during the transition and different payroll frequency. Is there any reason why this would not be permiteed.

If an insurance company received direct and eligible indirect compensation and no other service providers received compensation, what would be the answer to Part 1, 1a ? Seems it should be "no", but I want to make sure.

Also, if I leave 2 (g) of Part 1 blank, I'm getting a validation error (missing or invalid entry). I've seen examples where this field is left blank, however Relius would prefer I enter a "0". Can this field be left blank?

I appreciate all help.

The IRS is threatening to disqualify a SARSEP as a result of the violation of the 50 percent particpation rule. How is the penalty calculated for disqualification?

Int he good old days before the timing of accrued contributions was material and elections/certifications were timing dependent, you could complete the 2010 valuation now (with appropriate caveat) even though the accrued contributions had not been made. I might add that I've never had a client who failed to make the accrued contributions by 9/15.

Now, I find that client cases stay home, which means continued acquaintance efforts. Also, I can no longer invoice on a completed work basis without putting our Wheaten terrier out on the street with dark glasses and a box of pencils to generate some cash.

How are practitioners handling this craziness? E.g., are you waiting until 9/15 to complete the actuarial report providing estimates in the interim?

A client has a multiple employer plan with 2 employers. There is common ownership between the 2 employers but not enough to create a controlled group

Owner A owns 48.5% of Company 1 and 51% of Company 2.

Owner B is the spouse of owner A and owns 24.5% of Company 2.

Owner C owns none of Company 1 and 24.5% of Company 2.

All owners receive their W2 compensation under Company 1. No compensation from Company 2. Both are S Corps.

Company 1 has about 30 employees and Company 2 has about 13.

How do I do the Top Heavy calculation? I know there is a separate calculation for each employer but who are my Key employees for each calculation? Do I include Owner A and B in both calculations? What about the fact all their compensation comes from Company 1?

The IRS has requested a change to a good faith amendment. We have been asked to replace one word with another word. Do we prepare a correction to the current amendment, only including the requested change, or do we change the word and re-send the entire amendment, with the employer signing and dating as of the current date?

Can a municipality require as as a condition of employement that employees must contribute $25 permonth to a governmental 457(b) plan? The employer in turn will contribute $150 on behalf of each participant.

I am working with an employer that is associated with a church, and is in the process of establishing an administrative committee to administer its 403(b) and welfare plans to fall within the church plan definition of Section 414(e). (Note that they do have a legal opinion that if they take this step they will most likely be considered church plans.)

The employer previously had ERISA language in its plan documents and filed 5500s. It recently discovered that it failed to file 5500s for the 2007 and 2008 plan years for its 403(b).

In addition it is questioning whether it should file the 5500s for the 2009 plan year, given that it is taking steps to be a church plan in 2010 (the process of which started in 2009).

Does anyone have any insight as to where the IRS will come out in its pending guidance regarding church plans?

For example, if they previously filed 5500s and had ERISA language in their documents, but now have removed the ERISA language and desire to file the 2009 5500 as the "final" 5500, will the IRS consider them to have "deemed" to have elected to be covered by ERISA due to the filing of the 5500s and the ERISA language?

Or will their be some type of grandfather for plans that are church plans on the date the guidance is issued, regardless of when they became church plans?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or insights!!

The Long Term Disability policy for our association requires a 90-day non-working period to qualify for the benefit. We are a small association and come under the DC mini-COBRA continuation. The person in the DC office said that the 90-day period qualifies as a reduction in hours and therefore an Involuntary Termination. Our HR person insists it is a Voluntary Termination because in involves a disability. Who can I go to for a valid determination? It means a difference of 3 months or 15 months of health coverage.