Can anyone site any laws that require a standard employer with a standard HMO plan to offer an annual open enrollment period? Furthurmore - is there such a requirement(besides section 125 plans)?

loaded svc pack 2 at 6.0

haven't had too much time to look at, but here are some comments:

had one error message while running the svc pack - nothing to indicate it was serious. In fact, the rest of the svc pack appeared to load fine. fortunately I contacted support and asked about it. turned out to be a problem. had excellent help, (no, it was super help) the person was able to walk an idiot like myself through the process of restoring the backup, deleting whatever bad file was sitting there, etc. support person even called back and said there should have been a better warning message attached to the error I received.

Make sure you have a recent backup - I had last night's and I ran the svc pack before anyone else was on QTECH, so there are two great words of advice!

anyway, there is a 415 report - but my note of caution would be it is hardcoded at 30,000 annual addition. since I expect the limit to be 35,000 next year, you may have to edit the report for future use. I already have a version that looks for 415 limit and does the 15% plan limit as well, someday I will make it available on our website.

Looked a little bit at the ADP/ACP crystal report. I am spoiled and prefer mine sorted by name (sorting by comp made sense when the def of HCE was the top 1/3 paid ees, but now I prefer alphabetical)and landscaped rather than portrait. I added an 'excluded from acp test' note to print next to people who are excluded. hopefully I can add the 'shift' logic I have been using on my custom reports. That really shouldn't be hard, it is just finding the time to do it.

sorry, thats about all I have looked at for now.

May a foreign country, or agency thereof, establish a 401(k) plan for USCs employed by it in the US?

I can find nothing which limits an adopting employer to US entities. Obviously, there is no employer income tax deduction involved but simply to offer the advantages of a 401(k) to USCs.

May a foreign country, or agency thereof, establish a 401(k) plan for USCs employed by it in the US?

I can find nothing which limits an adopting employer to US entities. Obviously, there is no employer income tax deduction involved but simply to offer the advantages of a 401(k) to USCs.

What is anyone doing to track Hardship information on a takeover case?

Is anyone using a color laser printer with QT and Crystal Reports. We would like to start using one but due to the high cost we do not want to purchase it until we are sure that it will print properly. I know that Quantech has performed a limited test on the HP 4500DN printer, but was curious if there were users already using a color laser printer.

Have a participant with a spouse in jail wants hardship distribution! Divorce is not on the horizon any suggestions on how to handle spousal consent? notary in jail?

What are all the possible choices to offer employees in a cafeteria plan?

Is it common to offer differing amounts to single versus married employees?

What about a varying amount for single parents?

Can anyone provide me with a working web site link to information on mandatory state tax withholding? Alternatively, if no known web site exists, can someone provide me with a hard copy of state withholding requirements or point me in the right direction to finding out more?

Rev. Proc. 2000-16 states that the normal deduction rules of 404(a)apply. Can a deduction be taken for corrective contributions relating to a prior year if it's still within the 15% or 25% deduction limits for the current tax year?

My son has dyslexia and it was brought to our attention that tuition for remedial reading courses were considered allowable medical expensed for a "Health Care Reimbursement Account". I searched the net and found a company whose HCRA was administered by a company called TRI-AD. In their literature they indicated that they indeed allowed reimbursments for this under their HCRA. Upon contacting my plan's administator (Accordia) they indicated this was not allowed. How can this be if all HCRA are governed by IRC 213??

What is the current environment for terminating a 401(k) plan sponsored by an employer that is being acquired in a stock sale? Since "the employer" is determined as of the day of the termination, if the termination is done before the stock sale, do the 401(k) "successor plan" regulations even come into play?

Are there service providers who do operational audits to ascertain if plans are being operated in a way that provides for continued qualification under IRS rules?

If so, what kind of report would be furnished to the client?

Thanks for any responses.

Am interested in techniques used by venture capital funds to shield tax-exempt entities from realizing ubti as a result of the investment. I have heard about "blocker C corps" and options but would like more information. Has anyone had experience with this in terms of plan investments?

Seeing information on organizations' experience with implementing web-based employee self service benefits administration. I would also like to know what vendors are being used and the satisfaction level with these vendors.

Our client(Buyer) is acquiring all assets of another company (Seller). Seller has a 401(k) plan with loans. Buyer has a 401(k) plan but will not accept rollovers of loans, only cash.

Seller terminates its 401(k) plan the day before closing by Board resolution. Seller intends to file a 5310 with the IRS and distribute after receiving approval.

Buyer does not want to monitor or in any way be involved with loans in Seller's plan. Buyer wants to offset the outstanding loan balances as of the termination date, even though distributions will not be made until IRS approval of the 5310 six to eight months later.

Is this permitted? What are some concerns?

In lieu of the above, could Seller (at the instruction of Buyer) amend its plan to say that all loans will become due and payable as of the termination date of the plan. If the loan is not repaid, a deemed distribution occurs.

Others must have experienced this. Any thoughts out there on how to handle situations like this?

Thanks.

An employer purchases a professional practice in an asset sale and inherits two employees from the old practice, with the promise that they would continue to benefit under the SARSEP established by the old practice (prior to 1997). After the asset sale is complete the employer forwards salary deferrals to the "inherited" employees' IRAs, AND continues to match the deferrals under the old practice's generous matching formula. However the employer never formally adopts or executes anything in relation to the SARSEP, nor do the asset sale documents address the SARSEP. Is it necessary to "unwind" all of the new employer's contributions (and the post-asset sale deferrals)?

We have provided Change Of Status.com as a free service to the general public. Hopefully this will help simplify some of those nasty change-of-status issues. Please let us know if this helps you or if you have any suggestions to further improve the site!

Visit it at http://www.changeofstatus.com

I am looking for sample 401k negative election language. Several other posts have made this request (but I don't see responses). So I'll try again - does anyone have sample notice language they'd be willing to share? An e mail of the WORD document to rvatalaro@earthlink.net would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

If a plan has a pre-1987 carryforward for deductibility purposes, and that plan has been terminated, may the employer use that pre-1987 carryforward in a subsequent plan (for example, money purchase plan terminates, plain vanilla profit sharing plan starts - can the profit sharing use the pre-1987 carryforward from the money purchase)?