I have a client who faxed wire instructions to their financial institution to make a $900,000 profit sharing contribution by the due date of their extended tax return (September 15, 2000). The financial institution failed to execute the wire transfer on the 15th. Instead, the wire was done on the 18th. Does anyone know if this contribution is deductible? I am leaning towards advising my client to deduct the contribution based on the constructive payment and agency relationship rules.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Is it a partial termination if 3 out of 4 participants voluntarily terminate employment? In this particular case, after the mass exodus the employer now has no employees and has not had any compensation for the last 2 years. This is a MPPP and now we have considerable "forfeitures" that can't be allocated because we have no compensation. Seems to me that this may qualify as a partial termination.

I know the case is pretty recent (December 1999)and I know it was discussed at the IF collection policy seminar this month (which I didn't attend), but has any one had any experience arguing on behalf of funds in collection actions using Airconditioning and Refrigeration Industry H&W FUnd v. J.R.D. Mechanical (99 F. Supp. 2d 1115) -- this US District Court case provides that a corporate officer breached his fiduciary duties under ERISA by using employer contributions to pay creditors and was found personally liable. Wow! (In the past, I've relied on the DOL regs regarding employee wage deductions, but never tried to expand it to employer contributions). Any thoughts?

Is there anyone out there who is doing contract administration work from home for a TPA/TPAs? How does this work? How do you get set up? Who provides E and O insurance / software? How is the pay structured? By Plan? By # of participants? Any information or advice anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. [Edited by Pat on 09-20-2000 at 10:15 PM]

Thank you for your quick reply. Another issues has arised: We moved this year and the company add the move to our salaries which possibly put us in the 150,000 - 160,000 AGI. Can we hold off until 2001? We have invested the money and really do not want to sale the stock. What does the recharacterized mean to an regular IRA? We would like to get this resolved because we have extended our filing for 1999 Income Tax until we can get this situation under control.

When does an employee cease to be an "Employee" for plan purposes?

An employee is planning to have their last day of work be Friday, September 29. Saturday, September 30 is the last day of the plan year, and the plan requires a participant to be an "Employee" on the last day of the plan year to get the match. Saturday is not a typical work day for the company. If the plan document defines "Employee" as: a common law employee, does the participant get a match or not? Does it matter if the employee has accrued vacation time as of September 29? Can the Plan Administrator decide how the plan will be interpreted in this situation?

Have other threads discussed this (or similar) issues?

Thanks.

I've just started working with a company that is in the process of implementing a "Purchase Time Off" plan. I've only been exposed to a similar plan one other time & I'm a little concerned about compliance.

I have 2 questions:

1) As currently proposed, the plan allows participants to discontinue their election at any time & be refunded for any contributions made that haven't been used. Isn't this a violation of salary reduction rules (i.e., Section 125)? Aren't the participants obligated to continue contributing for the entire plan year?

2) If an employee terminates after having used the time, but before enough deductions have been taken to cover the cost of the time, payroll will automatically deduct to recover the overpayment from the employee's final paycheck. In most states, signatures are required at the time for non-recurring deductions. Is a signature on the enrollment form good enough to support recovery?

Thanks!

An employee terminated coverage. He was entitled to Medicare at the time of termination. He and his wife enrolled in COBRA. 18 months have passed. But the wife is continuing COBRA for 36 months from the former employee's Medicare entitlement date. She wants to add the former employee to her COBRA plan as a dependent. She claims she should be able to do this under special enrollment, because her spouse has lost health coverage under the plan. Do the COBRA rules require that the former employee (who has exhausted 18 months of COBRA), be allowed back onto the COBRA plan as someone else's dependent? Can a dependent who has Medicare qualify for special enrollment under COBRA?

I know this may not be the correct board for this, but I was trying to target the board most actuaries hit.

Does anyone know where to find information on birth rates or probabilities by age of mother and father? I have found the National Vital Statistics web site to be helpful, but it's not exactly what I need.

What I'm trying to do is determine the probability that an individual has a child within x years. Similar to a mortality table.

For example, what is the probability that a female age 6, has a child in the next 10 years?

Does anyone know where to find information on birth rates or probabilities by age of mother and father? I have found the National Vital Statistics web site to be helpful, but it's not exactly what I need.

What I'm trying to do is determine the probability that an individual has a child within x years. Similar to a mortality table.

For example, what is the probability that a female age 6, has a child in the next 10 years?

Does anyone know if a non-highly compensated employee can opt not to participate in the employer's non-contrib. DB plan; what are the ramifications and is there a regulatory cite; I seem to remember this being asked before but I can't find the thread.

I have what is probably as fairly basic question that does not appear to be adequately addressed by the commentary that I have read: Does the DOL require a self-insured medical plan to maintain a trust where (i) premiums for coverage under the plan are paid through a 125 plan and (ii) from time to time the plan receives after-tax contributions for COBRA and retiree coverage. Benefits under the plan are paid from the employer's general assets and the participant after-tax contributions are paid by check to the employer.

I have looked at ERISA Tech. Release 92-01 and the preable to the plan assets regulations and am confused as to whether DOL's nonenforcement policy extends to self-insured medical plans, particulatly where the plan receives after-tax contributions for COBRA and retiree coverage.

The plan covers well more than 100 participants

Any help would be appreciated.[Edited by M. Salsbury on 09-20-2000 at 10:59 AM]

My co. wants to implement a PTO bank. I'm aware that most companies decrease the total number of days the employee receives annually (sick, vac, holiday) when going over to a PTO. Is there an "industry standard" formula used for this? We currently provide 13 sick, 10 vacation, and 11 holiday - totaling 34 days. For example, would we provide 28 days vs. 34? We want to be fair, but also minimize our liability.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

these reports can be found at LDA-FCPA.com

click on the CUSTOM REPORTS

these are 5.0 crystal reports

I can't promise these reports will work everytime, but feel free to use at your own risk. or, as with anything, double check your work. I haven't had a problem yet with them, except maybe for bad data input on the system itself.

Reports are:

census - schedule T - revised

this report will pull some of the info needed for question 4 on the sched T. if you print the 410(B) data under the nondiscrim report, you should be able to fill in the blanks.

this report will give a count of ineligibles, # of term in prior year, # of terms

this report will also tell you if a term in a prior year has comp in the current year. if this is the case, these employees will not show on Quantechs ADP test. why should an ee show if he quit in a prior year? but if he was a rehire, then such person should be on the test. in such case, you would need to delete or enter a new term date on the employee. possibly have to override his eligiblity code as well.

these people can be found on the other report

The other report:

census - data check for sched T

this is a census verification sorted by category code, with a WARNING message of problem people. feel free to ignore the misc 'count' numbers that show. this is a quickly thrown together report

anyway, feel free to try them out.

I have a one-participant (100% owner) defined benefit plan with a first-year contribution of approximately $50,000.Since the plan asets are under $100,000 is my client exempt from filing Form 5500EZ, or does the requirement to file Schedule B supercede the exemption?

Is a city housing authority in Pennsylvania an eligible employer in regard to IRC Section 457(e)(1)? The housing authority in question already has a money purchase plan with voluntary employee after-tax contributions. It would like to start a 457 plan.

If a 401(k) plan has immediate eligibility for deferrals but one year for profit sharing and the plan is top heavy for the plan year, who gets the top heavy contribution?

all participants or only participants eligible for profit sharing portion of plan?

Employer failed to remit deferral contributions for 9/99 - 12/99. The employer has now remitted the contributions, but still must make up lost earnings. What is the best way to calculate those earnings?

We have a terminated calendar year plan that distributed all assets February 28, 2000. The final 5500 for the short plan year January 1, 2000 - February 28, 2000 is due September 30, 2000 or with an extension until December 15, 2000. Previously we would have used the prior year 5500 and "X'ed-out" the year on the form changing it to the current year, as indicated in the 5500 instructions. Does anyone know how to handle this situation using the new forms? The current instructions do not address this and if we wait until the DOL issues the 2000 forms, we will probably miss the extended due date.

I would like your thoughts on this--

Have any of you had an employee request a loan under a 401(k) or other retirement plan specifically (and exclusively) to pay qualified higher education expenses? If so, have you been requesting a Form W-9S and then maintaining and filing the loan information normally required for those types of loans? Do you provide a special rate for the loan since often student loans are offered at a lesser rate? Should it make any difference if the loan is an allocated investment of the borrower (so the lower interest rate is fiduciarily more appropriate)? What about any other special requirements relating to student loans--what else should we be concerned about?

Thanks

Theresa Lynn