I reviewed a Plan that is in the railroad industry (at least I understand it to be that way). They are publicly traded and file 5500's. So it appears to be an ERISA Plan. For some employees they have an offset based on a railroad act benefit and for certain other employees the SS offset applies. I am trying to determine if this Plan is subject to 411 accrual rules. It appears that it would be. Anyone else have comments?

Gary

I was just hired in MA by a company with corp. headquarters in SC. I was hired to work 30hrs/week. According to all of their employee benefit summaries, anything 30 hrs or more is benefit eligible. However, my mgr's boss in SC has decided that I will not be benefit eligible. I am not sure what grounds he is basing this. The HR Director for his area has warned him that this goes against policies. What is my recourse?

Since contributions to a multiemployer plan are mandated by the collective bargaining agreement, how are practitioners handling the case where these exceed the maximum tax deductible amount ?

My wife is from Japan. Both of us have been regular contributors to our IRA's. We have to move to Japan in a year or two from now, and we'll be there for 5-10 years at least. Both incomes will be from foreign sources at that point. My question is:

1) What is the status of the money that we've already contributed? Do we leave it to acrue interest, or what?

2) Is there a way that we could keep contributing? Does investment income from investments remaining in the US count towards income?

Any advice here most appreciated!

1. In a plan with a REA-only death benefit, can a QDRO name the participant as the spouse for purposes of a QPSA benefits of the ex-spouse in a Separate Interest QDRO (i.e. 50 % of accrued benefit as of date x is assigned to ex-spouse, 50% remains benefit of participant)?

2. Can a participant name the (ex-spouse) alternate payee to be treated as the spouse for purposes of the participant's remaining (50%) share for the QPSA only, but not the QJSA, again assuming a Separate Interest QDRO.

I ask this wondering how to avoid the need for the participant to ask the spouse 20 years or so from the divorce date to give spousal consent to a form other than a QJSA (with ex-spouse as beneficiary), but to preserve some death benefit in event of premature death while divorced (not re-married).

3. Can a Separate Interest QDRO stipulate that the ex-spouse be treated as the spouse for QPSA and QJSA but only up until such time as the participant remarries?

Upon termination of employment, stock granted under stock option plan was sold back to privately held S corp. Market value for sale of stock was determined by CPA firm as of 1/1/00. Upon receipt of K-1 for 2000, the tax basis of stock at 1/1/00 was substanially higher than market value determined by CPA firm. Was the stock undervalued for buy back by company?

I have been confronted with a coverage issue regarding a 401(k) whereby earlier in the year the employer acquired another entity. 410(B)(6)© contains a special transition rule for coverage testing in the context of mergers and acquisitions. I notice where it states that employers may take advantage of the special rule if the coverage under the plan covering employees of the newly acquired person is not significantly changed during the transition period. What exactly is the meaning of "significantly changed?" I cannot find any authority on this issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Plan failed 410(B) Coverage for just the profit sharing provision, due to last day rule mostly. Plan passed for 401(k) and employer match provisions.

To perform the Average Benefit Percentage Test, are all "employer" contributions (meaning profit sharing, employer match, and employee deferrals) used when calculating the individual participant's contribution percentage although the Plan only failed the profit sharing portion of 410(B)?

At the risk of sounding dumb could someone explain to me why we need minimum distribution rules in pension plan other than the fact that it is in the IRC?

In 1998 I rolled over $9468 from a 401k plan into a Roth IRA. I have paid no tax on the rollover. This year I took a partial distribution (6666.67) from the Roth IRA for the purchase of my first home. What is the taxable portion of this (non-qualified) distribution?

An employer has two divisions. One division in the USA and one division in the UK. Each division has it's own pension plan and each division has about 400 employees. A small group of the UK employees will be working in the USA division for about 8 months and will be paid in US $$$$. Does the service in the UK division count toward any service requirement for eligibility in the US division's plan??

There is a DB plan termination where all participants are 100% vested in their accrued benefit. There are after-tax employee contributions made to the plan. In making the distribution do you 1) add the contributions to the amount of the accrued benefit? and/or 2) do you use the compute the taxable amount using the after-tax employee contribution credit?

Are there any custom reports for Defined Benefit plans???

Start up bank wants to establish Safe Harbor 401(k) Plan and fund 3% Employer contribution with bank stock contributed and expensed by bank holding company (will keep bank earnings up for first several years). I was thinking that this was ok and that bank stock would still be considered qualifying employer securities (ok to fund Safe Harbor obligation) but thought someone might have been involved with something similar and could share thoughts/problems with doing so.

Aware that bank stock (ER contributions) will not be afforded any 404© protection (employee deferrals will be invested in mutual funds), but wondering about other issues to consider.

What should be contained in a "Successor Trustee Letter"?

Pretty straight forward question: Can a Non-qualified plan be amended and merged into a 401(k) Plan? I suspect not, but was hoping someone could confirm.

A US Employer sponsors a 401(k) Plan for its US employees. The Puerto Rico division of this company also sponsors a separate Plan for employees located there ("PR Plan").

It appears that Plan provisions are similar, if not identical. However, the big differences in the documents include a difference in the name of the employer (US Plan - ABC Company/PR Plan - ABC PR Company), the PR employer is organized under the laws of PR, and the PR Plan references the PR Internal Revenue Code.

The Plan names are identical. However, the PR Plan references salary reduction contributions as 165(e) contributions. The surronding language convinces me that this translates into 401(k) of the US Code.

The employer would like to merge these 2 plans into 1, presumably, merging the PR plan into the US Plan.

Can this be done? I thought that US Plans could not cover employees of companies located outside of the US. But is this really a non-US company? Also, is Puerto Rico a territory of the US or something similar to that in which they are considered US soil for these purposes?

Thanks for any comments!

When a participant terminates employment, how long does he have to repay an outstanding loan balance in full? We have been administering our Plan using 60 days from the termination date (and then the balance becomes a taxable distribution for the year), but are now being told 60 days is incorrect.

With regard to top hat plans, there are a couple of PLR's out there that state that a participant must make his deferral election by December 31 of the prior plan year in order to "satisfy the 401(k) cash availability rules."

what would happen if a person decided to enter the plan in the middle of the plan year without making the prior year election?

(1) Is the employee's life the measuring life for the straight life annuity referred to in 1.401(a)(4)-5(B) for payments to a beneficiary or alternate payee of a restricted employee? 1.401(a)(4)-12 states: "Straight life annuity means an annuity payable in equal installments for the life of the employee that terminates upon the employee's death."

(2) If the employee's life is the measuring life, do 401(a)(11) and 417 override 411(d)(2), and what is the employee's life expectancy after the employee's death?

(3) If the beneficiary's or alternate payee's life is the measuring life, does 401(a)(9) override 411(d)(2), and should the employee's life expectancy be used for a beneficiary that is not an individual?