Is anyone aware of a voluntary LTD tax-free benefit option available under new Private Letter Rulings and Treasury regulations?

Does anybody have any practical experience with this? Here's what I'm wondering:

In the "old days" when the 5500's were filed with the IRS, the IRS was pretty good about waiving the 25.00 per day penalty for late filing. And out of the many, many plans that have filed late with the IRS that I've seen, I have NEVER seen one where the DOL imposed their penalties, even if the IRS imposed the penalty.

Now that these are being filed with DOL, does anybody have a feeling as to how reasonable the DOL will be about waiving their penalties? Since they will obviously now know directly if filed late, this is a real concern - do you opt for DFVC up-front, which is still expensive, or do you take your chances on penalties being waived? (And of course, the EZ filers aren't eligible for DFVC, so they will have to pray for reasonableness anyway) I also realize that under IRS Notice 2002-23, the IRS automatically waives the 25.00 per day if you are eligible for, and satisfy, the DFVC requirements.

Anybody have "contacts" at the DOL to have garnered a feeling as to the mood on this? All discussion appreciated!

if a partner in an LLC wishes to purchase life insurance through his plan, it looks like the premiums are not deductible to the LLC. It may be, however, only the PS58 costs that are not deductible. For example, if the premium is $6,000 and the PS58 cost is $200, the employer could deduct $5,800. True?

Also, can a trust be the beneficiary of such a policy?

I have recently started to use fool around with the testing components of Relius. Can you make Relius exclude participants that have not met the 1 year/ age 21 eligibility?

I am attempting to perform cross-testing on a plan that defines normal retirement age as the later of age 65 or the 5th anniversary of plan entry. The normal retirement date is the anniversary date coinciding with or following attainment of the above age. Relius appears to be "rounding" the "Tst Ann Age" and the "Tst Age". All participants born during the first six months of the year have values of 65, while all participants born in the second six months of the year have values of 66. The rounding does not appear to apply to "Cur Age".

This yields some interesting results. For example, one participant born in March 1935 shows "Cur Age" of 66, "Nrm Ret Age" of 65 and 67 for "Tst Ann Age" and "Tst Age".

After reading the nondiscrimination thread from February, I changed the plan specs to "Date of Event" to remove the Normal Retirement Date from the equation. I got exactly the same results for the participant mentioned above. It did change the "Tst Ann Age" and "Tst Age" to 65 for participants who had not already exceeded age 65, however.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? If so, does anyone have a workaround?

Can the balance in a participant's medical FSA be transferred to an FSA under another plan? We have a situation where a subsidiary is merging into the parent and its employees will become covered under the parent's benefits plan, including its FSA. We are worried about what will happen to balances in employees' current FSA's.

A client refuses to purchase reinsurance protection but instead imposes a yearly plan payment limit on each employee. Does anyone know of federal laws or court rulings speaking to this type of exposure?

Facts:

ACP test has failed. HCE is 40% vested. $1,000 needs to be distributed. Plan year is 12/31. Testing is done after March 15th deadline. HCE would receive $400 and $600 would be forfeited.

However here comes the kicker. The plan termination date is as of February 28, 2002. Do you consider HCE 100% vested and return entire $1,000 due to ACP failure or do you still return only $400 to HCE?

My feeling is you would still return only $400 for correcting the ACP failure. Since testing is done for last year 2001 and plan terminated in 2002 you still do the refund based on 2001 vesting.

Anybody agree or disagree with my reasoning?

Company A owns 80% of Company B, thus a controlled group. Company A & Company B each have their own plan benifiting their own employees. We have just taken over the adminsitration of Company A's plan. Prior administrator never aggregated for top heavy. Current administrator of Company B's plan is not aggregating.

I hope I am missing something, but it seems to me the Plans must be aggregated for top heavy. Am I wrong?

Can an employer who sponsors a self-insured medical plan in a cafeteria plan unilaterally raise employee contributions mid-year? If so, what issues may this raise?

I am looking for help in finding the right person in the IRS to get something done--Ha-ha!!

We have a DB plan termination that was filed almost three years ago. It was questioned because of the method of reallocating the excess assets (we bumped up benefit to a current retiree along with the active participants).

While this termination has been in process, it has been passed along to several different agents, none of whom seem to have the authority to approve it, so it gets passed along again.

Finally, it has gone to a different office. We spoke with the agent today and he stated that although he did receive the files in January, it will likely be another 3-4 months before he opens them.

If anyone has had a good experience working with someone in authority in this area, I would appreciate the contact information.

Thanks so much!

At the 2002 Enrolled Actuaries Meeting, when asked about the 30-year treasury rate, the IRS representatives stated they were working on it and that they expect to have a rate for February 2002 soon (my paraphrase). They seemed to understand the sense of urgency. I expected that we would get a February rate within a week. It is now 15 days.

Anyone heard anything else?

I'd appreciate your collective thoughts on this:

We are a mutual fund company which provides in-house recordkeeping, with the admin work doen through a number of TPA's. We are in the process of developing a self-directed brokerage feature as well, and are putting together some reporting requirements to allow the TPA's to complete the 5500's. Exactly what info do you feel should be included in the reports? Obviously the name of the securities, but should we include the value at the time of purchase/sale? The year end value? If so, I assume plan year end . . .

Any input you may be able to provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I just sent my federal tax return. I used Taxact software and I beleive I was to report how much I contributed to my ROTH ($1800) last year. I think I forgot to do this.

Questions:

Do individuals have to report contributions to IRAs?

Doesn't the IRS get this info via form 5498 from the trustie anyway?

Let's suppose you have calendar year 2001 DB plan, and employer also has a 401(k). 401(k) is deferral only. Employer contributes the required amount to the DB, which is more than 25% of compensation. In addition, the employees all defer under the 401(k) plan - no one exceeds 415, a plan limit, or 402(g).

So, the employer has a nondeductible contribution to the 401(k)for 2001. Pays the excise tax. What happens in 2002? How do they go about deducting this, since the DB cost will exceed 25% of comp every year for the forseeable future. Are they stuck paying the 10% tax for every year that it remains nondeductible, or is there another way out? (I'm thinking they are stuck, but I'm hoping one of you clever people can explain otherwise) Thanks.

My $5900 in Roth contributions over a three year period (1998 - 2000) has dwindled down to approximately $2100. If I terminate my Roth, would I be able to take a deduction for 2002 for the $3800 in losses? Would there be any tax or penalty paid by me on the distribution? Also, would I be allowed to open a new Roth immediately so that I could make my 2001 contribution before April 15 and still be able to take the tax deduction?

Can we cover the cost of several employee's Rx costs if they have chosen to take a medicare wrap instead of our group insurance. We would like to pay $60 toward their Rx costs. We don't have a Flex plan, but would still like to pay for it through company funds. Any ideas out there?

My company offers flex credits that employees may apply either to reduce their cost of benefits or receive as a cash-out option, if they waive coverage. I've had a couple of employees, who originally waived coverage, and consequently received a taxable cash payment, request mid-year after-tax election changes so that they can participate in one or more benefit programs. Payroll seems to think that the monies these employees have been paid thus far in the plan year (through the cash-out) should be recouped before they can participate in the benefit plans on an after-tax basis. I can find no regulatory precedent for such an action. Any opinions?

Assume Company A uses a rabbi trust to set aside and accumulate assets to satisfy benefits under a top hat plan. The rabbi trust's assets are divided into several bookkeeping accounts, one bookkeeping account for each participant. Participants are permitted to request that the trust invest the assets attributable to his/her bookkeeping account in Mutual Funds A, B and/or C. The plan is terminating and the Company A wants to liquidate the rabbi trust. Assume one of the participants has requested that the trustee invest 100% of her bookkeeping account in Mutual Fund B and that the trustee has so invested her account. This participant wants to maintain her investment in Mutual Fund B. Is it possible for the trustee to make an in-kind distribution to this participant such that the units in Mutual Fund B presently titled to the trustee may be retitled in the participant's name? Or, must the trustee sell the shares of Mutual Fund B, distribute the cash to the participant, and then the participant can reinvest the cash in Mutual Fund B (although doing things this way may result in certain otherwise avoidable investment fees)?

Assume that the Mutual Fund is agreeable to retitling the shares.

Thanks.

It is my understanding that prior to SBJPA, death benefits provided through life insurance in an "eligible" 457(B) plan was fully taxable to the beneficiary since the employer was the owner of the assets.

Now since the assets are for the exclusive benefit of employees and held in "trust", has the taxation of the life insurance proceeds changed and a therefore should calculate the pure insurance amount and apply the PS-58 costs?

Also, are the life premiums subject to the incidental tests of 25% if using Variable Universal Life?