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

Can a money purchase plan be amended after the end of the plan year to reduce the contribution to be made to the plan?

My Company is preparing to implement a salary reduction qualified transportation fringe benefit program effective 1/1/2001. In designing the program, the following issues arise:

1)If an employee ceases to make salary reduction amounts but remains employed, may s/he seek reimbursement for qualified transportation provided in the future until his/her account is used up?

2) If an employee prepays a parking expense before the program is implemented, may s/he seek reimbursement for each month as the parking is provided?

3) Can contributions be generic and applied to parking and/or transit passes or are there two separate categories?

4) If an employee is paid biweekly, then s/he will be paid three times during two months of every year. Q&A-13 of the Proposed Regulations limits salary reduction to the combined limit of $240. During months when the employee has three payroll dates, it is possible that her/his salary reduction amount will exceed the combined limit. Any suggestions for dealing with this situation?

We have a situation where the balance in a non-qualified plan is being paid to the beneficiary of a deceased participant. Question is whether the payment is subject to federal tax withholding. Has anyone encountered this?

Thanks for any replies.

What are the SS bend points for 2000?

Is it true that when doing a 2000 PIA calc, the most recent NAtional Average Earnings available are for 1998 (that is two years behind)?

Does anyone know when the NAE are published and where all this info can be found?

After reading through IRS publication 590, it appears that there is nothing illegal about deliberately over-contributing to an IRA or Roth IRA account. This raises the following question: what is there to stop me from opening a Roth IRA account with an initial deposit of, say, $10,000, if I am willing to pay a $480 penalty each year for the rest of my life on the $8,000 excess contribution? The way I see it, $40 per month is a small price to pay for a ~3 year jump start on untaxed growth using Mechanical monthly investing, as I use (or practically anything that at the very least matches the market).

(btw, the example on p31 of

http://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590.pdf

makes it clear that it's the excess contribution itself, excluding any capital gains or interest that it might generate, that gets the 6% tax each year, even though it requires the withdrawal of the excess plus the earnings in order to stop the annual tax)

On a related note, does anyone know about excess contribution taxes that individual states might impose in addition to the 6% federal tax?

Thanks,

Robbie Geary

Can an employer that sponsors a Sec. 125 plan (including medical expense and dependent care expense reimbursement features) increase the maximum deferral amount mid-year, and permit participants to increase deferrals, without running afoul of the prohibition on mid-year election changes? I would think the answer is "no" but since the mid year election change prohibition is generally geared to employee changes am wondering if there's an exception for this kind of case.

My company is too small to get good rates from reputable dental plans. Instead, we want to reimburse our employees up to $1500/yr for dental expenses, as a taxable bonus. Are there any regulations that I should consider in regards to this potential benefit?

Thanks!

--Liss

Has anyone had any experience with amending a 401(k) plan so that all administrative expenses are paid out of plan assets? Would expenses be apportioned to participants on a per capita basis or according to percentage of total plan assets? What potential problems must a plan sponsor consider (i.e. notice to participants, decreased employee morale, decreased employee participation) in making a decision to pass administrative expenses on to plan participants? Any insights are appreciated.

Can a son who is an employee of a mor ethan 2% Sub-S onwer participate in a 125 plan?

I have a safe harbor plan which would like to make a 3% nonelective contribution to satisfy their top-heavy contribution requirement. However, the plan sponsor would like to exclude all HCE's from the contribution. I have read Notice 98-52 but, I am still unsure if HCE's can be excluded from the contribution. Does the contribution have to be made to all eligible employees (HCE's and NHCE's alike)? If not, what kind of documentation is necessary to communicate this to the employees? Citations would be appreciated.