An employee is due to enter a 401(k) plan on April 1. He is excluded until May 1. From Rev. Proc. 2000-17, it appears that a QNEC must be made since the employee will not have the opportunity to defer for the last nine months of the year. However, this employee would have only been able to defer 9 months had he entered on his eligiblity date. Has anyone considered whether this 9 month rule can be pro-rated depending on the entry date which was missed? Any opinions?

When can the value of terminated participant account balances be considered for the $5,000 automatic payout rules?

With the severe decline in the market, I am sure that some terminated participants balances have now fallen below $5,000. Can the determination of balances occur quarterly? daily?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Diane

I need to make a large withdrawal from a Ira and will be subject to the 10% penalty. Should I have the 10% penalty taken out of the distribution right away?( Along with the federal and state taxes). I know that I would probably have to pay a penalty at tax time if I didn't have enough taken out for Federal but does that apply to the 10% penalty also?

Our health plan has recently had two cases where adolescents were placed, by their parents, in Wilderness Camp programs as an attempt at intervention related to emotional and/or drug abuse problems. These programs are in some cases licensed by the state but most are not JCAHO accredited. The two cases we had required the parent to pay in full for the “admission” to the camp – usually a stay of from 21-30 days. Both camps stated that they would assist the employee in filing a medical claim for the “admission.” In one case that assistance was a statement on letterhead with the total charge stated to be tuition. Because the facility does not meet the standard required in our Plan we have denied coverage. I’m interested in any information others may have regarding these camps and whether or not the plans you administer provide coverage for this type of “admission.”

Can classes be defined like this?:

Class 1: Participants making between 20,000 - 25,000

Class 2: Participants making between 15,000 - 24,999

etc.

Also, with the proposed Regs, it appears permissible to carve out classes of employees and exclude them from the profit sharing contribution altogether (write them out of the plan), since the Regs do state any leeway with the 1/3 / 5% gateway.

Would this design work under the proposed Regs?:

All employees making over $25,000, except for Owners and Officers, are excluded from the profit sharing contribution. Class 1 includes Owners and Officers. Classes 2 and on are broken down by compensation ranges like shown above.

What do you think? Is it too aggressive?

My company has had a Section 125 plan for several years. The plan consists of medical and dependent care spending accounts and does not include insurance premiums (our health plans are 100% employer paid). It is based on a calendar year. Employees are paid monthly (on the 1st of the month) and deductions are withheld from each check. However, the first deduction each year is withheld from the February 1st paycheck. For example if I elected $1,200 for the 2001 calendar year in my dependent care account $100 would be deducted from my each of my paychecks starting with February 1, 2001, through and including my paycheck of January 1, 2002. The plan was set up and has been this way before I became the administrator. This causes problems with W-2 reporting of dependent care (i.e. in the above example we would report $1,100 on the 2001 W-2 versus $1,200 even though the employee submits receipts and receives reimbursement for $1,200) and in looking for another 3rd party administrator I'm running into problems with no one wanting to come near our plan. I beleive the 2001 deductions should start on the January 1, 2001, paycheck. How can I fix this for 2001 and start 2002 off right?

Can the current owners of a privately held company capitalize and buyout their ESOP because of concerns about trustee liability? It's a non leveraged ESOP. Are there any issues regarding this?

A participant in a qualified defined benefit plan and his/her former spouse were divorced in 1982 (i.e. pre-REA), and the Separation Agreement (incorporated into the 1982 final decree of divorce) awards a portion of the participant's benefits to the former spouse, payable when the participant begins receiving his/her benefits at age 65. The participant turns 65 in 2001 and the former spouse has requested her benefits as specified in the Separation Agreement. In determining whether it must comply with the terms of the Separation Agreement, must the Plan Administrator consult pre-REA law only, post-REA law only or may the Plan Administrator require the parties to the Separation Agreement to obtain a QDRO now?

I've just been given a takeover plan. It's a balance forward 401(k) plan with quarterly valuations. I'm beginning with the 1st quarter of 2001. This 401(k) plan has about one-third of its assets invested in employer stock. Is this a problem?

The plan is on a standardized CODA prototype document. All p.s. and match contributions to the plan have been in company stock. The only contributions that the employer has made in cash and not stock are employee deferrals and rollovers and QNECs made in the past to pass failed ADP tests.

The deferral, QNEC, and rollover sources are employee directed with five investment choices (employer stock is not one of the choices). The other two sources, profit sharing and match, are employer directed and are 100% invested in employer stock.

I thought non-ESOP plans are limited to 10% invested in employer stock, unless the employer stock was chosen by the participant within a participant directed account.

A Plan failed the ADP test for the 1999 plan year and is also top heavy. To correct the ADP test and satisfy the top heavy contribution requirement for 1999, the client decided to put in a QNEC. When does the contribution have to be deposited to satisfy the top heavy contribution requirement for the 1999 plan year? Normally, the QNEC would have to be deposited by 12/31/2000 but for top heavy requirements, would the contribution have to be deposited by 9/15/2000?

A Columbine High School Student Wrote:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less. We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgement; more experts, but less solutions; more medicine, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to life, not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; we’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We have higher incomes, but lower morals; we’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality. These are times of tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to forward this message and make a difference … or just hit delete.

Say a spouse beneficiary, of an IRA owner who dies before age 70 1/2, moves the assets to an inherited (beneficiary IRA) and takes a death distribution. Can the spouse beneficiary later move the remaining assets to an IRA in his/her own name (i.e. treat the remaining balance as his/her own?)

I have recently been working with a company that has had a somewhat spotty history when it comes to getting elective deferrals into its plan in a timely manner (at least according to DOL). As I have been trying to prepare the appropriate ritual sacrifice to the DOL and IRS to attone for these misdeeds, something keeps bothering me about the process, and I wondered if anyone out there could cite me to some authority--formal or otherwise--that will remove this burr from my saddle.

The standard fix for late contributions of elective deferrals seems to require (aside from actually getting the contributions and earnings into the plan) the plan sponsor to file a 5330 and pay some excise tax to IRS.

Here's my problem: the whole reason that the untimely contribution of deferrals is a PT is because of the DOL plan assets reg. The 5330 is an IRS form. The excise tax goes to IRS, not DOL. DOL may not even know that you filed a 5330. By paying excise tax on a "transaction" that the IRS has not (as far as I know) classified as a PT, aren't we just giving IRS some free money?

Does anyone know of any IRS pronouncements, etc. that indicate one way or the other that filing a 5330 in such circumstances does anything other than give you that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from paying some money to Uncle Sam?

Can a Domestic Relation Order, which is entered by a court after the participant in a profit sharing plan remarries and which assigns some or all of the participant's benefit in the plan to the participant's former wife, qualify as a QDRO under Code Section 414(p)?

Can a terminated participant take a hardship distribution? Not exactly why you want to..but I haven't been able to find anything.

I havn't filed my 1999 tax return yet.I converted my traditional ira to a roth ira in 1998 with a 4 year payout.

My question is,can i still recharacterize my roth ira back to a traditional ira for tax years 1999 and 2000 or am i locked in to pay taxes on the original ira conversion?

How is the top heavy test ratio calculated if an individual is a key employee in the plan year (2000), but was one not as of the determination date (12/31/1999)?

I am not sure if the 12/31/99 balance is include in the key employee total balances. I know the individual would not receive the top heavy contribution.

A medical partnership sponsors a money purchase and profit sharing plan. The three equal partners consists of two PA's and an S Corp with the respective Dr. Partner owning 100% of his corporation partner [No plans in the individual corporation]. All employees are in the partnership and are covered under both partnership plans. The Dr.'s perform services on behalf of the partnership and their respective corporations receive a K-1's in the amount of the partner's [corporation] distributable income. The Plans are paired and both are PPD Standardized documents and the individual medical corporations are participating employers in both plans.

For determination of contribution and allocation purposes and Section 415 limits, etc., what compensation should be used for the Dr's in the partnership plans? K-1 distributions from the Partnership? W-2 Income paid to the Dr. by his PA who is a Partner? What about the Dr. whose partnership entity is an S Corp? His could be taking distributable net income.

Any thoughts?

Would a reversal of a vasectomy be an eligible expense?

Thank you!

What Code Section dictates that only cash can be used to fund Pension / Profit Sharing Plan contributions and not stock? I have a partnership low on cash who wants to fund their 2000 contribtion by transferring stock shares, I have told them this is not correct, that the contribution must be made in cash, however I am having a hard time finding the proper site. Also their investment advisory firm told them they would accept stock shares for the profit sharing contribution but not the money purchase...could this be correct????