Sad that my 1,000th post should be something this boring. To all you BoSox fans, shouldn't I get a couple of Green Monster seats for this post?

Situation is this: participant terminated employment, and was properly reported on a SSA. Two years later, participant is rehired. Do you:

A. Report on a SSA with a code B, and change benefit to zero?

B. Report on a SSA with a code D?

C. Something altogether different?

I lean toward D, but I'm not really certain. Any opinions? Thanks!

Schedule C requires us to list "service providers", but the form's instructions don't define the term.

I believe that Schedule C is for reporting services to the plan, not to the participants. For example, a plan that offers employee legal service benefits will report its own attorney's fees, but not the expense of providing legal service benefits to plan participants.

And, how broad is the term "service"? Do you include the janitorial company that cleans the plan's office suite every night? What about the caterer who serves food at enrollment fairs? Is Schedule C limited to reporting only "professional" services?

Company with SIMPLE paid one-time bonus to EE's a few months back. Apparently the executive director deferred a good chunk into his SIMPLE without executing a deferral agreement. Also the rank & file were not informed of their ability to defer any of their bonus. A few questions:

1. Is it permissable to execute a separate SRA to deal with deferral of a one-time bonus?

2. If so wouldn't it have to be done in conjunction with the plan's election periods (in this case calendar quarter)?

3. If done outside the allowable election period does the deferral need to be returned to ER & run back thru payroll?

4. Since the rank & file weren't informed of ability to defer does that fact invalidate the ED's deferral? Or the fact that no SRA was executed?

Any assistance is appreciated. Thank you.

I'm testing a 7/1/2003-6/30/2004 (large) plan and trying to determine who are HCEs. Under the plan's terms, service is measured on a plan year basis but compensation is defined as calendar compensation.

For 7/1/2003-6/30/2004. I seem to be able to use calendar 2002 pay to determine the HCE threshhold by using the calendar year data election of IRS Notice 97-45. There does not seem to be any documentation or amendment requirement to use this, except for consistency among plans and that the election, "once made, applies for all subsequent determination years unless changed by the employer."

Questions:

(1) Am I right that I would use calendar 2002, not 2003?

(2) This is still an option, right?

(3) How does an employer make such an election, i.e. is there any documentation requirement that I have not found and am unaware of?

Thanks for any help.

I have one of these books from 1998, and I was talking to my current employer about this book yesterday. she emailed me today, asking "where can we order these?" and I cannot find this book anywhere. The edition I have was published in 1997 by Investors Press, Inc.

Does anyone know where I can get some of these books? There are some clients who really need to have these! When I worked at BISYS Plan Services, we used to give them out to clients (they also had the BISYS logo on them).

when an exec compensation package includes "welfare benefits" in its definition, what welfare benefits are being referred to (in general)? Where would I find this information?

Plan is safe harbor match with immediate entry for 401(k) and 1 year wait for safe harbor match. Participant is hired in March, 2005. He earns $100,000 in 2005. For 2005, he is an otherwise excludable employee so he does not have to be included in an ADP test. In March 2006 he becomes eligible for the safe harbor match. For the 2006 plan year, how do you test his deferrals? He satisfies the safe harbor from Match - December, but does not satisfy it from January - February. He is also no longer an otherwise excludable employee, since he does have 1 year of service.

I have a DB plan which is currently just barely top heavy ( i.e 62%) - it wasn't TH last year but was the year before - under the current plan formula, non-keys will get at most 12% of final average pay after 30 years of service - a far cry from the 20% TH minimum required after only 10 years of service.

A Question/Poll for Other Practitioners : For funding would you assume continued top heavy status and fund for 20% of pay for those non-keys expected to have at least 10 years of service at NRD ?

PS: This is one of those "Doctor Plans" for those practitioners who go back a few years and is general tested each year - it passes (a)(4) due to the large build-up in a sister DC for the non-keys/non-hces --------- under this DB plan the Docs get 60% of FAE after 30 years.

I have a new DC plan in 2004. At year end there were over 2,000 participants. Although there were participants techinically eligible on 1/1/2004, there were no assets and no one had an account balance. There is an end of year requirement for an allocation. I would think that there we no participants on 1/1/2004 and certainly not on 12/31/2003

I don't find guidance in the 5500 instructions regarding new large plans. What I do read is that the large/small distriction is based on participants at the beginning of the year.

I would think that this is a small plan for the 2004 5500.

The major question is whether an audit is required. I would think NO.

Comments?

What documentation is necessary for a loan that is to be used for the purchase of a principal residence w/a repayment period of 15 years? Would a signed statement from the applicant be sufficient?

Thanks!

When is the deadline for making matching contributions? Thanks

My husband was divorced 28 years ago and the domestic relations order stated that his former wife would receive survivor benefits. However, a QDRO was never drafted or filed with the court. My husband and I married five years ago. My husband is vested and will retire in approximately five years. Do I have any rights to the survivorship benefits? (The pension is a defined benefit.) Also, is there a statute of limitations for filing a QDRO?

Controlled group entity maintains a "mega-wrap" health plan document that covers group health, dental, life insurance, and short and long term disability.

Not all participants are enrolled in each component of the mega-wrap plan. Thus, 500 are enrolled in the life insurance component, 325 in group health, 400 in dental, etc.

What is the total participant count for the beginning and end of the plan year, for Form 5500 purposes?

Do we use the largest number (life insurance) and file an attachment to the Form 5500 showing how many participants are covered under each component of the plan?

Is there an expriation year for the small business 401k tax credit?

A participant is getting divorced. They are amicable and are using a mediator. They are splitting everything and are each keeping their own retirement plans.

The participant is keeping the home and will pay the exspouse the equity. The participant was wondering if they could use their 401(k) to pay this amount?

Would this count as a hardship - payment towards principal home? - I wouldn't recommend this due to taxes, penalties etc... But he wanted the option.

A loan is available to him - in this case may he exceed the 5 year payback limit?

Could he get a QDRO to pay the exspouse out of the 401(k) and use that to reduce the equity owed to her on the house?

He is just looking for options. Thanks!

I'm terminating a plan, they have never filed for a determination letter before, does an opinion letter act as a determination letter?

Client wants to purchase an annuity to provide the payment. Would this be considered to be a payment "on behalf of the restricted employee" and therefore not allowed?

I have a thrift plan for union members of a board of education. Currently it requires after-tax contributions and has a vested match. It is on a profit-sharing prototype. They want to add a 414(h) pick-up of 5% mandatory contributions and change the after-tax to voluntary. An "authority" tells me this can not be accomplished on the prototype and requires an individually designed document. I have reviewed past posts and am not sure about this. Does the document need to specify 414(h) pick-up? What needs to be included in the document? I am totally confused by the whole "pick-up" idea. (So confused, I don't know if this post should be under 401(k) plans). Any help or resources would be appreciated.

Thank you!

There was a brief article on this subject in BenefitsLink today:

http://oppenheimer.com/news/detail.asp?id=631

This was interesting, as I hadn't realized that this had changed for "most situations." Does anyone know what the exceptions would be - in other words, in what situations would this outcome/relief NOT be true?

I've seen from a couple of sources that IRS is planing on issuing revised Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System materials later this month.

One of the big changes is that employers will be required to contribute only 50% (rather than the current 100%) of average pre-tax deferrals for employees who were improperly excluded from participation.

I'm currently in settlement negotiations for an employee who was improperly denied participation in an elective deferral plan for about five years. We've based our settlement position on the current IRS EPCRS requirement that the employer contribute 100% of average deferrals. If the new EPCRS will cut that contribution in half, I'm concerned our settlement also will be halved.

Any thoughts on how I should proceed? The material when it comes out might address the situation, but I don't know if it's safe to wait that long if it ends up being unfavorable to the client. Our backup plan was to involve the DOL if a reasonable settlement couldn't be reached, assuming they'd recommend a correction similar to EPCRS. I don't think we can be too sure of our initial settlement calculations now.