We have a small plan that did not make the 2003 minimum required contribution of $50,000.

When we prepared the 2004 valuation, the ERISA Full Funding Limit is $0.

Does the employer have to make the prior year contribution of $50,000?

Is there a problem with a 401k plan investing in an investment funds that is on the Irish stock exchange? The fund is marketed / sold through a well-known investment /insurance group (it's raining in our citi today, better get the umbrella out) but the division has a Bermuda address.

I am not familiar enough with the foreign investment rules or whether this qualifes as a foreign investment, etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

Employer's contract with Union requires that Employer can change health insurance carriers but must mainatin "coverage at least equal to" the coverage that is presently in effect. Employer provides traditional coverage with a network of partcipating providers. Union alleges that Employer violated contract when it changed carriers because new carrier's network not identical to old carrier's network, and thus, some employees lost the ability to see their providers on an in network basis. Employer maintains that "coverage' doe snot refer to networks but to benefits, deductibles, etc. Is anyone aware of any helpful authorties for the Employer?

If an employer gives employees the opportunity to make payroll deductions to buy the employer's holding company's stock but there is no discount given on share price and stock is purchased once a month if the employee has enough in his or her account, does Code section 423 apply?

I am looking at the program to determine if Code section 409A applies and will admit that it is unclear from the information I have if the payroll deductions are pre-tax or where the shares are purchased (are publicly traded).

Bottom line, is it possible to have a payroll deduction like this without having either Code section 423 or Code section 409A apply?

Thank you in advance

If an employer gives employees the opportunity to make payroll deductions to buy the employer's holding company's stock but there is no discount given on share price and stock is purchased once a month if the employee has enough in his or her account, does Code section 423 apply?

I am looking at the program to determine if Code section 409A applies and will admit that it is unclear from the information I have if the payroll deductions are pre-tax or where the shares are purchased (are publicly traded).

Bottom line, is it possible to have a payroll deduction like this without having either Code section 423 or Code section 409A apply?

Thank you in advance

Existing profit sharing plan amended in September to a 401k. Eligibles in 2004 were able to defer in 2004. Employer wants to impose an exception to the eligibility requirement (for deferrals) and allow EVERYONE who was employed on 1/1/2005 to be deemed as already meeting the one year service requirement and be able to defer . Nothing wrong with that when amending an existing plan to allow deferrals is there? Standard eligibility requirement will be in effect for employer contributions and new employees hired after 1/1/05 will need to meet the standard eligibility to be able to defer.

I have a SHM plan that has an annual calculation method, but company makes deposits through payroll throughout the year.

They incorrectly calculated the SHM for 2 people and over-deposited. Is this returnable to the company as an operational error or does it have to be transferred to suspense-type acct?

The document is silent on this since it written in "annual" language.

thanx!

Does an employee have to become a participant to make a rollover into a 401(k) plan? The plan says that an employee can make a rollover without being a participant, but this seems odd.

QDRO provides that alternate payee's award is "subject to actuarial adjustment ... for the Alternate Payee's age, sex, and benefit form selected."

This is the first QDRO I have encountered with an actuarial adjustment for gender. Because of the unisexing of the actuarial assumptions and factors after Manhart, Norris etc, my knee jerk reaction was "holy cow" or something like that. On second thought, the alternate payee is not an employee and thus not covered by (?) by Title VII and EPA sex discrimination provisions.

Anyone reviewed this issue?

I have a basic question regarding top heavy determination which I would like confirmation. When adding back distributions made within the 1-year lookback period, am I correct that distributions made to participants who did not render services during the 1-year lookback are disregarded?

Question (1)

If I am married and file separately it is my understanding that my personal AGI cannot exceed 110K to qualify for a Roth. Further, I belive that my spouse and I collectively cannot have more than 160K AGI. Is this true?

Also, can I still contribute in subsequent years to this Roth when my AGI goes beyond 110K or 160K w/ my spouse?

Question (2)

I should know this but don't. Can you have both a regular IRA and a Roth IRA?

Thank you so much for any help. I'm considering a reg. IRA conversion to a Roth and need help!

Got a call from a 57 year old Dr. that wants to put in a DB plan. He is in business for himself and has no employees. I asked him if he ever had another DB plan from a business which he owned and he said "yes" but it was terminated "about" 12 years ago. I told him I need the amount of the benefit he earned under the prior plan to use as an offset to the current maximum benefit limit. He came back and said neither he nor his CPA can find any records.

I am not going to cut corners but I can see how the records could be difficult if not impossible to come by. I don't see how can I do this without the plan document and the amount of his distribution? Anyone had a similar experience? How was it resolved?

I have a few employees that are seeking reimbursement for a monthly fee they are paying to their chiropractor for on-going service. I believe it should be reimburseable, they do have a medical condition (chronic back pain) and the chiropractor is treating it as needed. However, when are the services incurred? They may have an adjustment one or thirty times in one month. Would their reimbursement only be eligible at the end of the monthly service period? Or, could it be reimbursed if the documentation attached indicates the monthly fee is billed out on the first serivce of the month? The plan document is not specific to this type of expense. Has anyone else run into one of these? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

thanks!

the code is pretty clear that the transition rule applies only to coverage when two companies merge but choose to run the plans separately. the rule does not apply to adp/acp. this may be a silly question but then do you have to aggregate the two plans for adp/acp test but not for coverage?

I've been browsing several different products and so far I haven't hit on anything that seems to be geared toward the retirement plan market. All seem to have fields you can customize but I would like to find a program that doesn't require as much work on the front end. Thanks for any input!

If a plan contains a cross-tested profit sharing feature and a 401(k) feature, when determining the NHCE concentration % for the average benefits test (plan is cross-tested), can you exclude terminees with <500 hours? I don't think you can, but just need clarification.

Thanks for any thoughts.

An employer with the owner as the only employee would like to add a DC plan. Does it make sense to use a 401(k) plan with a profit sharing feature, or does it make more sense to use just a profit sharing plan?

The company may add employees in the future, and may want to allow employee deferrals. We could use a profit sharing plan now and add a 401(k) feature in the future when needed, but is there any drawback to just designing the plan from the beginning with the 401(k) feature already in the plan?

Would it be a violation of HIPAA to apply a dollar limit to a diagnosis before appling a preexisting condition limitation. For example, in the first 12 months of coverage a plan would benefit a diagnosis up to $500 before investigating to see if it is a preexisting condition. If the diagnosis is then determined to be preexisting, creditable coverage would still apply.

I know next to nothing about DCAP's except that it is a way to pay for dependent care expenses. If a company wants to institute a DCAP are there any rules as far as pro-rating contributions? By this I mean company plans to begin offering under their cafeteria plan beginning 3/1/05. Can the employee withhold the maximum annual amount contributing January and February retroactively and submitting dependent care expenses from January and February? Thanks for any replies.

There are two profit sharing plans (same employer). Plan A allows everyone in including union employees. Plan B excludes union employees. The employer would like to merge Plan A into Plan B. The intent is to no longer cover union employees. What issues are there in doing this - is it even allowed?

Thank you for any input.