In PLR 200301143, the Service approved a plan provision that allowed employees to elect to have vacation pay, which otherwise would be forfeited by year's end, contributed to the DC plan. The Service characterized the contribution as a non-elective employer contribution and not a CODA. If a plan does not have a use it or lose it feature, as long as the employee is not able to receive the value of the unused vacation pay in cash, that is, the vacation time can be used, can be carried over to the next year (perhaps with some limits on carry over), or can be contributed to the DC plan, do you think there might be a problem or is this essentially the same as the situation in the PLR? Any other thoughts or cautions? I'm aware of the non-discrimination concern. Thank you very much.

Does anyone know if there is guidance on what is meant by "recurring and substantial contributions" as referred to in Treas Reg 1.401-(b)(2). Client has a profit sharing plan but has not made contributions for the last few years. I am trying to determine if he has a "permanency" issue or possibly a deemed termination (if there is such a thing).

Can someone give me cite(s) that indicate that a ROTH IRA is not permitted to be transferred to a qualified plan. I also need one for a SEP-IRA (I assume it's allowable?)

Thank you

I know that o/s participant loan balances have to be reported as part of the total assets. But when loan payments are made back to the deferral account and are included in total Salary Deferrals, should the loan payment amounts be backed out of that number on Line 2a2 of the Schedule I? Also, is the interest paid back on the loans adjusted on the Other Income line?

The more I do these the more dumb I get. Thanks

Former client has requested all records, documents, contracts, etc. referencing their account be.shipped to them. As an agent, I find it necessary to retain e-mails correspondence, contracts and policies in the event of legal difficulties. Client didn't pay consulting fee for the internet services, binders, paper, etc. How would you handle this?

Thanks

Kova7

We are getting ready for open enrollment and have received our final numbers from our vendors. We have several different medical plans due to having facilities in various states. The cost of one plan is going up 12% (available in one state), another is going up 4% (available in several states) and the last is going down 1% (available in one state). In our planning meeting, management wants to do an across the board cost increase of 8%to all medical plans instead of increasing the cost to employees based on the cost increase of the plan in which they are enrolled. Another idea was to still do an across the board increase to all medical plans but at a lower percentage and make up the difference by raising the employee cost of the dental and vision plans. Neither of these ideas sound right to me. What are your thoughts?

Employer maintains money purchase pension plan for Davis-Bacon employees, only. Subsequently employer adopts a SIMPLE-IRA for office workers who could not participate in MPPPlan. Employer also contributes to SIMPLE plan on behalf of Davis-Bacon employees.

Prior discussion of this issue (link= http://www.benefitslink.com/boards/index.p...revailing+wage0 does not resolve question for me as to whether SIMPLE-IRA is disallowed in its entirety, or only with respect to Davis-Bacon folks. Any comments appreciated.

1) A 401(k) plan for a non profit corporation that runs a casino business.

2) A second 401(k) plan for the tribe that holds the casino business on the reservation. The sponsor of this second plan has a different ein#.

Plan 1) is for a non profit organization. Plan 2) is for a government entity. Different employees participate in plan 1) and 2) depending on if they work at the casino or not.

Do these plans need to be aggregated for coverage, adp testing, 401(a)(4)?

Do I have this correct?

Employer has 401(k) Safe Harbor plan Plan uses the matching contribution to meet safe harbor. No other contributions are made other than employee deferrals so top heavy is not an issue.

Doctor is the only employee deferring, hence the only one getting employer match.

Safe habor is met, but, no other discrimination issues?? $20,000 for himself $0 for staff.

Thanks.

What do you need to disclose regarding brokerage commissions/investment fees in Part I of Schedule C? Specifically what are they referring to when they say: "include brokerage fees and commissions only if the broker is granted some discretion"? The cite they give on the form seems to refer to brokers executing securities transactions. in our case we are a TPA and we are concerned about subsidies received from mutual fund companies. The 5500 seems to be only concerned with fees paid by the plan. money received from other sources dont seem to be the issue to me. sometimes we are a fiduciary and we disclose and offset under frost but this does not seemt to be relevant in this question.

An "owner only" client has deposited $41,000 into his 401(k) plan during 2002 and will now be showing a net earned LOSS on Schedule C. How is this handled? If we call it a "participant-level" 415 violation, document calls for deferrals to be returned and ps portion to be put into a suspense account (which is not distributable, of course). At the same time, if we call it an "employer-level" 404 deductible limit violation, we could return all of it by the due date of the tax return and not pay a penalty. Which comes first? - the 415 suspense account - or the 404 refund of non-deductible? I'm inclined to think that 415 comes first - it goes into suspense and the client pays a non-deductible penalty. I would greatly appreciate any input.

I also question whether the first 12K can even be categorized as deferrals in the first place (previously posted) but I would at least like to know how the ps portion should be dealt with.

Especially useful shortcuts for Internet Explorer, from the May 6, 2003 issue of PC magazine:

Ctrl-W: Close the current window (this is especially helpful for foiling pop-ups).

Ctrl-D: Bookmark the current page.

Ctrl-N: Open a new browser window.

F5: Refresh the page.

Ctrl-F5: Fully refresh the page, regardless of caching.

Alt-<Left/Right Arrow>: Go back/forward a page.

Alt-Home: Jump to the home page.

Ctrl-<mouse wheel>: Increase/decrease the default font size.

Shift-<mouse wheel>: Go forward/back a page.

Shift-<left mouse click>: Open a link in a new browser window.

Right mouse button: Open a context-sensitive menu for a link or picture.

If the DC plan in a Floor Offset arrangement is a Profit Sharing plan then for DB funding cost computation purposes what contribution level is (can be/should be) assumed for projecting the PSP balances at NRA?

What if no contribution has been made to the PSP for last n years or contributions have been up & down and intermittent?

Can one assume zero future PSP contributions to maximize DB cost (assuming the combined 25% deduction limit does not become an issue).

An individual P owns 100% of Company A and 30% of Company B. There are no other connections between A & B and do not have any other common employees/owners.

Both A & B want to establish DB plans. P, naturally, wants to participate in both plans.

Questions:

1. Any problem with this?

2. Will the S415 limit apply to P's total benefits from the two plans or apply separately to the benefits under each plan (i.e. P can potentially receive "two" S415 max benefits)?

3. If there is no problem with the above and "two" S415 limits can be had, at what ownership % level will this be a problem.

Company A has 15 employees and maintains it's own 401k plan. Company B has 600 employees and maintains it's own 401k Plan.

Company A is acquiring 100% of the stock of Company B. Company A plans to make Company B a subsidiary and keep both plans in tact.

What issues do they need to address? Partial termination, severance of employement, anything at all?

Thanks,

Ronnie

Can a participant in a governmental 457(b) 3yr. catch-up plan also participate in the $2,000 catch-up in a 401(k) or 403(b) in the same year?

Did you hear that Saddam Hussein was injured? He lost a leg.

Just think how pissed off all the doubles are now!

Can a floor/offset arrangement have an age-weighted defined contribution plan offsetting a defined benefit floor plan. I know a New Comparability PSP can be used as an offset, but I find no definitive information for an age-weighted PSP as such. Thanks very much for any help you can provide.

We are revising the forms we give our customers who elect to Recharacterize their IRA contributions.

As part of the customer's notification requirements to the financial institution, they are required to list each contribution they want recharacterized (within the same IRA) and the date it was contributed.

Some of our customers elect automatic monthly (or quarterly) deduction.

We're considering adding a line to our Recharacterization form which states: please list each contribution amount you want recharacterized, and the date of contribution. If this box is left blank, we will process the recharacterization according to LIFO (last in first out).

In your opinion, is this option allowable under the regs?

Has anyone else ran into this type of situation? How do you handle?

Under the IRS Final & Proposed Required Minimum Distribution Rules, April 2002, if an IRA participant died after his her required beginning date and the beneficiary is a non-spouse beneficiary, in order to set up single life expectancy non-recalculated payments, the non-spouse beneficiary must contact the financial institution by December 31 of the year following the death of the participant. If the non-spouse beneficiary does not contact the institution, what payment method is available for that non-spouse beneficiary? Can the beneficiary set up a SLE payment schedule and take catch-up payments subject to the 50% penalty (for the missed payments)?