S corp has a SEP IRA. Can the client set up a SEP IRA with a new financial institution and transfer the old SEP money to the new SEP account?

The organization I work for has had a long practice of paying 100% of the health insurance costs for the employee. Employees pay a portion of the premiums for dependent coverage. With the rising cost of health care, it has been suggested that we start to charge employees not only for dependent coverage but to cover themselves as well. Employees have begun to claim that they have a contract (nothing written) that they are to receive individual health coverage at no cost for ever and ever. Has anyone gone from not charging employees to charging them? What has been your experiences? Have you found any relavent laws/cases that prevent charging? Has anyone ever heard of an organization that can not charge for individuals for health coverage?

Some time ago there was some proposed legislation that would permit the rollover of 457 plans (governmental) to IRAs. I read some exchanges on the topic in the bulletin boards. The discussion seems to be over a year old. It is my understanding that the legislation was not passed.

Are there any new developments or any anticipated developments regarding rollover of 457 to IRAs?

Can a company of less than 10 employees offer medical and dental benefits to only selected employees of the same job category? (new york state)

I terminated my position with my employer on 12/5/00. I still have not received any information from them concerning cobra. I did call them several times and asked when I would receive my cobra information. They have told me that I must wait until I hear from them. I have called and my insurance is still in effect. How long does an employer have to notify a terminated employee about cobra? Can they back date my policy and not pay any claims that are coming through? any help on this would be appreciated.

I am trying to allocate matching forfeitures. Only those who deferred should be receiving a forfeiture, but it is allocating forfeitures to everyone. I have the basis for forfeiture allocation to be "in the same manner as employer contribution", which I took to mean whatever employer contribution I was forfeiting, in this case being the matching employer contribution. I also have the basis for matching contributions on the Allocation Provision screen to be YTD deferrals. Any guidance???

HIPAA affords guaranteed availability to group members seeking individual coverage if certain conditions are met.

One of these conditions is the exhaustion of continuation coverage.

Suppose the COBRA benefit period begins 1/15/2000, and the benefit period is 18-months. The person is very sick, and would be a "decline" in the standard individual underwriting process.

Access to the guarantee-issue rates is appropriate, but at what effective date IF the individual policy effective date are approved by the State Insurance Department as the first of the month following approval?

7/1/2001

7/15/2001

8/1/2001

some other date

If 7/1/2001, benefits have not been exhausted.

If 8/1/2001, the person loses two weeks of coverage.

If 7/15/2001, the effective date is not allowed by the approved state insurance department document.

Thoughts?

Michael L. Round

Does anyone know of any set rules with regard to providing defined benefit information for top executives for proxy statements? I tried the SEC website- and couldn't find anything, except some sample (1993-1994) Executive Compensation information for 3 companies. One sample included a range of benefit levels based on hypothetical salary and service and then separately identified the top executives with current average pay and current accrued service. A comment was included in this sample that the company was not able to "project estimated benefits at this time". Another sample pretty much had the same type of information.

Are there any specific guidelines (SEC or Accounting)on what should be included- ex. estimated benefit at NRA, assume salaries increase if project, or just current accrued information? I'm thinking this is a employer decision on how to present the information.

Thanks

Is it possible to take a hardship withdrawl from a 403(B)7? I had a 403(B)7 for one year, and have since had an e401(k). I am facing serious financial difficulties (like might have to file bankruptcy) and wondered if there is a way I can get the money from my 403(B)7 since I no longer contribute to it anyways.

I really don't understand any of this, so please use detail in explaining things... any help is *greatly* appreciated in this matter.

Sommer

I contributed $2000 to my Roth IRA in January 2000. I then earned too much in 2000 to be allowed to contribute. Unfortunately my investment was in an index fund and is now only worth $1500. Do I have to withdraw $2000 or just the $1500 that is left? Can I set the $500 loss against my capital gains? I can't find anything in publication 590 that tells you want to do if you lost money over the year.

After reading the IRS instructions for forms 8606, 5329

and 1099-R/5498 several times I am thoroughly confused.

I have received two 1099-R forms marked in the upper

right corner for the year 2000.

Roth IRA History:

1998

I opened and contributed $2,000 to a Roth IRA in 1998. Not limited due to income. No rollover or conversion.

Roth IRA Value as of 12/31/1998: $2,000

1999

I contributed $2,000 to the Roth IRA in 1999. Limited due to income.

This is now an over contribution due to income limitations. Principle and earnings were pulled out on April 30, 2000. I reported the total distribution on line 15a and the earnings ($945) on line 15b on the 1040 for 1999. I over estimated the earnings on line 15b by about $112, since I wasn't sure at filling time of the exact amount.

Now I receive a 1099-R marked for year 2000, it has a code "P" in box 7. I think they may have made a mistake on the 1099-R as the amount in box 1 is $2,833 and the taxable amount in box 2a is also $2,833. Is this correct? Shouldn't the taxable amount in box 2a have been only the earnings, in this case $833? My broker insists it is correct but I wonder if they are confused as I am.

Since I received this 1099-R marked for tax year 2000 does this mean I should have reported this income for tax year 2000 and not tax year 1999? This would mean I need to amend the 1999 return, right? I did not pay the 6% penalty for an over contribution in 1999, should I have paid this $120 or am I somehow exempt from this? Do I have to amend year 1999 to adjust for the over reporting of the $112 and/or the $120 penalty?

I've tried to fill out the 8606 form and the 5329 but can't seem to figure them out, what should they look like in a circumstance like this? Should they be filled out for year 1999 or year 2000? I know I will need at least the 8606 in the future so I want to get this one right.

Roth IRA Value as of 12/31/1999: $5,939

The second 1099-R was for a regular IRA I revoked within 7 days in December 1999, it included $ 1,803 (box 1) and $3 in taxable amount (Box 2a). On what line of the 1040 does this income get reported to? What should the code in box 7 be of the 1099-R for a circumstance like this, they have marked it as a "P" (Box 7, with an X in the IRA/SEP/SIMPLE), Is this correct?

Do I even need to report this, as since it was revoked, is it as if it never happened? Should the earnings have been reported for tax year 1999 or since the 1099-R was issued in 2000 should the earnings be reported for tax year 2000? Do I need to fill out a 8606 and/or 5329 for this as well, for which years?

This income was not reported on my 1999 return.

Do I have to amend year 1999 to adjust for this unreported amount?

Regular IRA Value as of 12/31/1999: $1,803 Funds transferred on 01/03/2000

Regular IRA Value as of 12/31/2000: $0 Closed out

2000

I contributed $2,000 to the Roth IRA. Not limited due to income.

Roth IRA Value as of 12/31/2000: $2,829

So there are the facts, in general what forms do I need to fill out and if they

are the 8606 or 5329 I would appreciate them being filled out for me by someone

who knows how to do these. I can give you a fax number where to send a the completed forms. Then I'll just copy them over to my forms.

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?