Hi everyone,

I'm a foreigner and in the immigration process. I'm currently holding a H-1 work Visa and working in GA. I'm paying federal and state taxes as a US resident. Since I'm in this unstable situation, I have some unique questions:

1. Am I qualified for Roth IRA investment (assume my income is not a issue)?

2. May I withdraw early from Roth besides buying first home? For example, moving out of US or some other emergency needs? It seems the answer is NO. But since the contribution is after tax money, can I take out some of it and keep the capital gain in my account to avoid penalty?

3. May I withdraw it from outside of US after I reach age 59.5?

Thanks a lot,

Newhand

I have a 401(k) Plan with household workers and we wanted to terminate the 401(k) Plan and distribute the nondeductible contributions and allow them to roll them over into a SIMPLE IRA to avoid the 4972 10% excise tax in 2003 and beyond. The 4972 excise tax is a cummulative excise tax and the Code, which was changed in 1986, reads that if the contributions are returned to the Employer, then there is no excise tax. Pre-1986, the Code stated that a correcting distribution may be made to avoid the excise tax. My question is: does distributing the nondeductible contributions in 2002 avoid the cummulative excise tax in 2003 and beyond? Or are we required to return the 2002 contributions to the Employer to avoid the cummulative excise tax? Also, does the termination of the 401(k) Plan cause the excise tax to cease in 2003 and beyond?

Does anyone have familiarity with a tax exempt employer operating a 457(B) and 457(f) plan in tandem with each other under the same or separate documents?

The basic concept is to allow contributions to the tandem arrangement which are in excess of the 457(B) limits for a single year, credit and vest the amount equal to the 457(B) limit for the year to the 457(B) plan with the balance credited (but unvested) to the 457(f) plan. In a future year, to the extent that the individual has not exceeded the 457(B) limit for the year, amounts previously credited to the 457(f) plan would be credited to the 457(B) plan.

The proposed regulations seem to suggest (1.457-4(e)(1)) that this would be permissible (even under a single plan document) so long as the excess remains subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture (i.e. the standard for remaining tax deferred under 457(f)).

Thanks for any insight anyone has to offer.

The IRS website currently posts the 5307 dated September of 2001. Does anyone know of a more recent version? I remember reading that this version would only be valid up until March 31, 2002 and that the IRS is going to release a new reversion in November of 2001.

Can anyone tell me the status of the proposal to rollover FSA dollars to next year? thanks

Does anyone know if the IRS has issued any additional guidance (beyond Q&A 7 of Notice 2000-3) on providing the safe harbor notice electronically?

I am 23 years old and just graduating college. I just recently landed a job for $53,000 a year. They have a 403(B) plan where I contribute 5% of my salary, and my employer matches it 2:1 making the total contribution every year 15% of my salary. Since I have this plan, opening a Roth IRA makes more sense than a traditional IRA since I do not qualify for the tax benefits of the traditional. Therefore I plan to open a Roth IRA.

Now, my question relates to my future plans. I only plan to work for this employer for 3-4 years max. At that time, I plan to enroll in law school. Can I roll my 403(B) into my Roth IRA and still have tax free distrobutions (after age 59 1/2)? How does that work (that being the conversion of a 40x(y) to an IRA)? Also, out of law school, I will most likely make $100,000 plus with steady opportunities for pay increases. Once I make more than is allowed in order to contribute to a Roth IRA, I will have to open a traditional IRA. Do I have to recharacterize my Roth IRA at that time? Or can I keep it as is and just continue with Tranditional IRA contributions? Hope this makes sense. I am a computer science major, so my financial expertise is comprised of only what I learn about at the Motley Fool. Thanks

Seth

Unleveraged 100% ESOP company decides it would be in the best interests of all stakeholders to have management accumulate some direct ownership in the organization. They decide to repurchase certain shares directly into treasury for resale to managers. While I am very interested in comments on the fiduciary implications of this, my question goes to stock value.

Specifically, company buys 10% of stock into treasury on Monday. Does that mean that if the ESOP goes to repurchase shares on Tuesday, the per share value is increased because there are fewer shares outstanding?

An employee exercises his stock option from a NSO. He then diposes of all shares on various dates throughout a 2-3 month period (for various legal reasons he can't dispose of the shares at one time, at one price).

In calculating the employee's loss/gain on the various sales of the shares of stock, is there any rule that would allow the employee to Not have to look at each sale transaction separately? I'm thinking of a rule that would allow you to use a single "average" share price over the 2-3 month period in determining the g/l. Any thoughts?

Thanks

We offer our benefit plans to full and part-time employees who work 20+ hours/week. (Note that the premiums are slightly higher for a part-time employee). A current employee enrolled in our pre-tax vision plan wants to drop it due to her choosing to reduce her hours from 40 to 29. I believe that is not a qualifying event (FT to PT) since she is still benefits eligible. Am I wrong in my interpretation of the Section 125 rules? Can someone direct me to a the specific reg which may address this issue? Thanks.

Does anything block a 1 person plan from having a cross-tested plan?

I have a plan which I'm restating for GUST as of 1/1/2002. In April, the old company which was sponsoring the plan was bought out by the new company. The representative of the new company wants us to change the Plan Sponsor, EIN, Plan name to the new companies information.

1) If this is done, will the old plan's GUST requirements still be satisfied.

2) If the document we are adopting includes the new Plan Sponsor information and they already have an existing plan handle by another TPA, well the new company now have two documents covering the same plan.

Thank You

I have a plan that has been terminated and we are trying to get the final 5500 done, but there is one participant that still has a balance that is over 5000.00 that we can not force out. The client and I have both sent numerous requests to this participant to have them paid out but the participant still has not done so. The company actually went out of business and the company that purchased the old business is trying very hard to get this all taken care of and is getting frustrated with the time that it is taking to completely terminate the plan. Is there anything that we can do to get the money out of the plan so we can process the termination completely. Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks for your help.

Amy

Hi,,

i converted my ira in 1999, i chose to spread the tax of 4 yrs. it has dropped in value. can i switch back and then back to roth to reduce taxes? does it matter that i have paid tax on this already?

thank you

steve

Can anyone give me any ideas as to how to calculate unrealized and unrealized gains and losses on individual brokerage accounts other than going thru each account and analyzing the buying & selling activity.

I have about 10 participant directed o/s brokerage accounts in a plan and in order to calculate Line Item b(4)(A) and (B) and Item b(5)B, I have been going thru each set of statements and preparing a spread sheet with beg. bal, sales, purchases, ending balance to come up with this number.

Is there an easier way?

IRC § 408(p)(7) provides that if a designated financial institution ("DFI") is used, participants must be notified that a participant's balance may be transferred without cost or penalty to another individual account in accordance with 408(d)(3)(G). Notice 98-4, Q&A J-4 states that a transfer of a participant's balance is "without cost or penalty" if the balance is transferred in a trustee-to-trustee transfer to the financial institution specified by the participant. A transfer is deemed to be without cost or penalty if no liquidation, transaction ... or "similar fee or charge" is imposed with respect to the balance being transferred. Does anyone know whether a DFI is prohibited from charging a fee for in-kind transfers under the above rules? Is there any guidance on this issue? The DFI does not impose a fee for transfers of cash balances. I am aware that a DFI can impose a fee against the employer provided that the employer does not pass on the charge to the employee who requested the transfer of his or her account balance. Q&A J-5. Thank you for your thoughts.

We have just been informed that a client failed their ADP/ACP/MUT tests for the 2000 plan year. The Plan is a prototype document originally effective July 1, 1999; it is drafted to use the current year testing method.

1. Since we are still in the remedial amendment period for prototype plans, can the Plan be amended to use the prior year method?

2. If so, how are HCEs/NHCEs determined for the prior short plan year (July - December)? Are compensation amounts extrapolated or do we use the prior 12-month period?

Thanks...any help would be greatly appreciated. If there is any specific guidance on this, I'd also be happy to just be pointed in the right direction...

The clients document elected the safe harbor "deemed Hardship" situations. One of these is payments necessary to prevent the eviction of the employee from his or her principal residence or foreclosure on the mortgage of that residence.

The employee is requesting a hardship distribution to prevent his eviction from an apartment. Can an apartment be his principal residence for the purposes of this rule?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Diane

We have a situation where a subsidiary is going out of business. The controlled group is simply the parent and sub. Therefore, must the employees of the subsidiary be overed COBRA coverage based on the health benefits of the parent? For that matter, what about when there are numerous companies in the controlled group, must coverage be provided under any other plan sponsored by the controlled group? If so, please let me know the authority.

Thank you!

Where can I go to open a ROTH IRA account between 5-10%return?

Sincerely,

Xavier