I am a post-doc which means that although I get a paycheck and have to pay taxes like the rest of the world, I don't get a W-2 at the end of the year. Instead, we get a Misc. Income from Government Grants form reporting our income. I am wondering whether I can still contribute to my roth with this type of income? If it makes a difference, we get a form called 1099-G at the end of the year instead of a W-2

Hi there this is my first time to this forum. My company has been talking to us about an ESOP. I've done research but I'm still not catching on as to how it works. The thing that perked my curiosity today was that it's time for my annual review. Each year I go to my boss (owner of the company, it's small aprox 50 employees) and I remind him we talk and I ask for something reasonable and he says okay. However, this year he told me that with the ESOP coming up that my salary will be going up considerbly but for now he'll talk it over with the other powers that be and see what they can come up with, b/c they are happy with my work. What I didn't think to ask him, is when will this take place? Does this mean I'm stuck at this salary until I retire?

So my question to anyone who takes the time to read this. How does and ESOP work and when do you get paid etc. I'm totally not grasping this. In the past I've dealt with MBS and with a company that was supposed to go public but didn't......The ESOP is something new and confusing for me. HELP!

Thank you

metmer

Nationwide Student transportation provider sent RFP to 4 insurance brokerage firms and is interested in responses from this forum.

We are a large employer of seasonal parttime drivers. Where required, we offer

health, dental, vision and life. Only about 1/3 of our drivers are enrolled.

We sent RFP to

Nieman Hanks. - Austin, Texas

Benefit Administrative Systems - Illinois

J. Wortham & Son, Houston, Texas

Marsh

Any information will be appreciated.

I have a self-employed individual who has about $75K in comp for 2003, and doesn't have a plan. Can he set up a plan now? I know he can't use the IRS Form, but can he set up an individually designed SEP plan?

This has no doubt been asked before (and I remember seeing it before) but I seem to be having trouble with the search engine since the server switched over.

Is it permissible for the plan to impose a limit on elective deferrals that is different for different classes of HCE's. For example, 15% for more-than-10% shareholders, 7% for other shareholders, and 3% for other HCE?

I need to file a 5558 extension for the 5500, for plan year ending 9/30/03. We have changed who the plan sponsor is since the last 5500, so I am not sure if the old or the new plan sponsor should file the extension.

Also, we changed the name of the plan. Which name should be on the extension form?

Thanks! Sorry if this is a simple question.

Question: An individual has his/her 403(b) account with Mutual Fund Co. "A" (the Custodian) and wishes to purchase past service credits using his/her 403(b) account. Mutual Fund Co. "A" is refusing to honor the request claiming EGTTRA allows for Custodial discretion as a matter of internal administrative policy.

Is this correct?

I received a draft DRO a few months ago that had the Plan Administrator "stipulating" to the terms of the QDRO. When I supplied the drafting attorney my suggested corrections I said that as the Plan Administrator we are unable to stipulate to items outside of our knowledge or control such as the date of the parties marriage and the agreement between the parties.

Long story short, the final DRO still had the stipulation language in it. I approved the DRO for qualification but refused to sign the order. My questions: Are QDROs often written to require stipulation of the Plan to the DRO? Was I too picky or was I misinterpreting the effect of stipulation?

Hi,

Can someone please confirm that when running a cross-test for a 401(k) profit sharing plan, if the rate groups do not pass on the ratio percentage test so that the ABT is used, are the 401(k) contribuitons included in the ABT?

Please help.

Thanks!!

I have two plans that need to be tested together for 410(b), but they have different plan years: one is calendar the other is Oct-Sep.

How do I go about that? Do I just test the portion of the plan year that over laps?

How would installment distributions work in an ESOP? When a person terminates and wants monthly distributions over 5 years, do you liquidate all the stock in the participant's account at termination, and distribute cash monthly, liquidate one year's worth of stock at the beginning of each year, etc? How does it work?

This Corporation was a Missouri Corporation, it established a 401(k) plan and now, a few years later, decided it wanted to Incorporate under the laws of Delaware. The employer has not changed employees, addresses, phone numbers, or anything else; only their taxpayer identification number. Can a simple amendment to the 401(k) plan adoption agreement, amending the Adopting Employers EIN handle this, or is it necessary to go to the extreme of terminating the plan, giving th employees distributions and letting them decide whether they want to roll into the plan of the new employer?

An employee left the company and thus had a distributable event. The EE left their money in the plan as it was greater than 5k and was rehired 6 months later. Can this EE still take a distribution of their account or must they wait until they leave the company, again?

The Profit Sharing Plan defines compensation as the W-2 Compensation reportable in Box 1.

Employee is absent from work for three or four months during the plan year due to sickness and receives sick pay (short term disability) during the absence from a third-party insurer.

If the sick pay is reported on the W-2 by the employer along with her other compensation for the year, is the sick pay included in determining her share of the employer contribution for the plan year?

Alternatively, if a separate W-2 for the sick pay is provided by the third party insurer, does this change the treatment of the sick pay?

to send to HCEs telling them their deferrals are going to be limited to X% for the year in hopes of avoiding an ADP test failure for the prospective year? Does anyone have one they're willing to share?

Can you include a QNEC in the 410(b) test (i.e. - 410(b) test on the profit sharing contribution is failing - ADP test fails also - employer puts in a QNEC to pass the ADP).

Thank you for your help.

I need to amend a 2002 5500-EZ that was put on extension to file initially. When I send the amended version in- do I attach a copy of the extension as well? My software is prompting me to but I don't think that is right.

Thanks,

Rachel

Suppose a participant was paid $200,000 in benefits. $150,000 was from a non-qualified supplemental plan and $50,000 from a qualified defined benefit plan. If it was later discovered that the payment should have been $100,000 from the supplemental and $100,000 from the qualified plan, how would one go about correcting it?

Of course, the $150,000 from the supplemental plan would have been reported as ordinary income with employment tax withholdings; the $50,000 from the qualified plan would have been reported on a Form 1099R with no employment tax withholdings. So the participant/taxpayer would have had excess employment tax withholdings on $50,000. Could it be argued that the qualified plan has cut back accrued benefits? Could this also be considered a loan from the supplemental plan to qualfied plan? Any thoughts on how to fix this?

Is there a minimum distribution amount that does not have to have taxes withheld from it. I thought I read somewhere that a distribution under $200.00 does not have to have taxes withheld. This particular one is $3.50.

One more question... Thank you all for your patience.

Financial advisor has asked if TPA fees could be based on the amount of assets... a percentage. As assets grow so would the admin fee. When asked why he asks he told me that he was told by an attorney that the SEC would label fees generated in that way to be considered "illegal commissions". I am not savvy with regards to SEC rules but don't see the fees to be commissions at all. I told him that as long as he disclosed his fee schedule I didn't see a problem... but that I would ask a panel of experts. Any thoughts ?