A (non-PBGC covered) plan was terminated in 2003. The 2003 Valuation & Sch B were prepared on plan termination basis.

No assets have yet been distributed from the plan. The client now wants to keep the plan alive and make contributions to the plan!

How does one Void a termination and what are the implications for the 2003 Val & Sch B?

If an employer A sells fully owned subsidiary M during the plan year, is there a grace period where the subsidiary M's employees can continue participating in employer A's 401(k) plan?

Since Church plans are exempt from ERISA, the usual "reasonable" standrds and prohibited transaction rules do not apply. Other than the exclusive benefit rule, what limits the expenses charged to church plan participants?

My situation is a regional church organization sponsors a plan that local congregations participate in for the local's paid staff. Regional employees provide all the administrative functions (processing contributions, distributions, participant questions, etc.) excpet for investment management services. Regional org wants to charge expenses of doing so to the plan.

What limits will apply?

Can anyone provide information regarding the law as it relates to acceptance of electronic beneficary designations? If the beneficiary designation form is provided online and we don't require a signed, printed copy, is it ok to accept the digital signature at the bottom of the online form? Thanks for any information you can provide.

Recently we were involved in a discussion regarding how to fix a plan that had made non safe harbor formula contributions to a profit sharing plan. It was discussed that a corrective amendment could be prepared for 401(a)(4) testing for all three years (2001, 2002, 2003) as long as the amendment was signed and dated before Sept. 2004. Does this sound correct to anyone? Thanks

Is there a restriction or requirement on who can/must be named as a beneficiary on a 423(b) plan, requiring a spousal waiver, similar to an ERISA plan. Since 423(b)s are not governed by ERISA, would the requirements be strictly based on state law? And, if so, is anyone aware of some restrictions/limits due to states being community property states as opposed to non-community property states?

All help is greatly appreciated!

This question has been passed through a few people so i only have a few facts. The sponsor of a DB plan has given plan money to a company that owns ATM machines. the ATM machines provide income to the owner based on the surcharges incurred by users of the ATM. Every month a check is written to the DB plan for its share of the surcharge fees.

The plan sponsor has received a notice from the IRS saying they need to file form 990 for the past 3 years to report the Unrelated Business Income Tax.

Is there a way to see this as something other than Unrelated Business Income?? Thanks.

I am looking for information on Bank One's tuition assistance programs. Does anyone no anything about them. Maximums, credit per semester etc.

im pretty sure the short answer is no, but a 5% owner was wanting to transfer his rmd to a charity without paying taxes. can a portion of a rmd be transferred without the tax penalty?

If someone is collecting social security can they still be eligible to have their health insurance premiums pretax?

Our large group welfare plan (fully insured and self-insured contracts) had a VEBA in past years, and thefore an audit, financial statements, and a Schedule H.

As of last year, we made a decision to no longer have a VEBA or any kind of trust, and did not have an audit done.

Does this new status exempt us from filing a Schedule H?

For a basic plain vanilla 401(k) that IS NOT a safe-harbor plan, what are the notice requirements for the discretionary matching formula the sponsor uses? Is there any notice required at all? In this case, discretionary matching contributions are going to begin in the middle of the plan year.

Can matching begin mid-year using a formula such as the one that follows: $.50 match for each dollar contributed in the second half of the plan year, limited to 4% of each participant's compensation for the second half of the plan year? The plan document does not mention whether discretionary matching will be based on compensation for any specific time period.

A person has an IRA (rollover from a QDRO) and is not age 59.5 yet. She is currently receiving annual installment payments which qualify for no premature penalties. She would like to take a lump sum distribution from the IRA. Three questions:

1. If she takes this lump sum, does this cause prior installment withdrawals to be penalized?

2. Would the lump sum negate any future installment payments from penalty?

3. If she so decides, can she return any of the lump sum money within 60 day? Is so, are there any other consequences?

I am no CPA... do not handle IRAs.... I do know there is a difference between a ROTH and a traditional IRA. My question is .... can a participant roll assets out of a qualified plan into a ROTH? Advantages.. disadvantages?

Thanks!

I have a client with a Section 132 Parking Plan through which all employees can pay for parking (or other transit) on a pre-tax basis. Due to differences in affordability, the execs are parking in a safe, well-lit, covered structure and the lower paid rank-and-file park a few blocks away. Recently, crime has escalated around the corporate HQ (downtown Oakland, CA - several muggings/stabbings/shootings within a block of client's HQ during broad daylight) creating a situation where the rank-and-file are more at risk walking to/from the building from the far away lots.

Has anyone had success in putting in a subsidized parking program based on a sliding salary scale? Since the Section 132 is already in place, do corporate parking subsidies happen entirely outside of the 132 plan? Is there any tax benefit to the employer? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Can an employer set up a flex plan so that employees can contribute their annual bonus in one lump sum AND still elect a weekly contribution amounts?

As long as the Plan Doc and enrollment form reflect this set-up... would it fly?

I am curious about whether or not an Employer can allow new hires 31 days for enrollment for those employees who are eligible on the date of hire; and, allowing 91 days for enrollment for those employees who are subject to a 60 day waiting period.

Has anyone ever seen this practice before? If applicable, please cite the 125 regulation or ERISA regulation that would make this discriminatory or unacceptable.

Thanks!

I have a U.S. plan that has a foreign company as part of their controlled group. The plan does not exclude foreign individuals as a class. If a foreign national from the foreign company transfers to the U.S. company, do you need to count the service with the foreign company for eligibility and vesting.

Example: Foreign individual worked for foreign company for 6 years and transfers to the U.S. company for 3 years. The plan has a 5-year vesting schedule. Do you count the 3 years service in the U.S. or 9 years combined U.S. and foreign service for vesting?

It appears you would count the foreign service according to Labor reg. 2530.210(d) & IRC 1563(a) [1563(b) carves out foreign nationals; 1563(a) does not].

Additionally, if a U.S. individual transfers to the foreign company, can you count the foreign service for benefit accruals under the U.S. plan?

I appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.

Have reviewed most of the prior posts in this section, but did not come accross exactly my situation. If addressed previously, just point me to the post.

Have a 401(k) sponsored by an LLC (taxed as a partnership). The partners (6 of them) would like more flexibility in designating the amount of their individual "profit sharing" contribution amounts - i.e., some would prefer nothing, others the maximum available, still others somewhere in between. Sound familiar?!

Can this be accomplished via "class allocation", with each participant constituting his/her own class? Or, since the amount of a partner's profit sharing contribution directly affects his/her "compensation", would such profit sharing contributions for the partners be "deemed deferrals"?

Also, even though the "employer" would technically be designating the individual profit sharing contribution amount for each partner, we all know that, in reality, each partner is making the call.

The plan is already a 401(k), so the "deemed CODA" aspect didn't seem to be an issue, but since the common law employee participants do not have the same ability to designate the amount of their profit sharing contribution, I suspect there might be other issues with which to contend.

Thanks for any any all comments.

A plan has eligible employees, still on payroll, but worked no hours and earned no compensation for the 2003 plan year.

Question - are these people counted on 7a of Form 5500 as "active participants"? For 2003, it won't affect the filing of Sch H vs. Sch I, but may have an effect in the future.

Opinions?