I have a client that set up a brokerage account under the name of the plan and the plan's federal identification number. I just found out from the client that the the owner of the company deposited some of her personal money into this account. How do I handle the comingled assets? This happened in 1999 and the 1999 employer contribution has already been made so I don't see how we could do any creative accounting.

In a safe harbor 401(k) plan, are there any additional restrictions on hardship distributions?

Can the plan provide for hardship distributions of deferrals in the same way as a "typical" 401(k) plan?

Can the plan provide for distribution due to hardship (under Rev. Rul. 71-224)of the safe harbor 3% nonelective contribution?

May a SEP-IRA holder receive an employer contribution to the SEP after age 70-1/2 if he/she is still employed?

Lets say you have a 401(k) plan with a year-end payout policy for terminated participants. At the end of any given year, there are a few terminated participants who have not been paid. Some have been gone for a couple years. Would you put them on an SSA? We typically don't. Although the instructions don't give me any authority to elect not to file, I am more concerned about what could happen if we forget to "un-SSA" the participant when he is paid later. Let's say he's 35 when he terminates and you put him on an SSA. He is paid three years later and is not removed from the SSA. Then 27 years later, he receives a notice that he has a deferred vested benefit and comes looking for it. The client has switched providers four times since then and doesn't have proof that the guy was paid already. Now what? I'd rather explain to an IRS agent that we didn't feel an SSA was necessary than deal with a much bigger problem years down the road. Am I alone in this thinking?

We are currently operating on v4.1 and know we need to update to 5.0, then 6.0 but don't know where to start. We will be getting some advice from support, but wanted to ask the users if there is any "better" way to do this. We have annual plans so last year (PYE 09/30)when the 5.0 conversion was experiencing so many problems with the customized reports - we decided to wait until our year end processing was complete. We should have done something over the summer, but did not. Now we are at another year end and cannot afford to get tied up reprogramming all our customized reports. We have not prepared our system with any conversion type readiness so any detailed advice would be helpful.

What minimum service conditions can be set for participation in the 3% nonelective contribution for a safe-harbor 401(k) plan?

What minimum service conditions can be set for matching contributions in 1) a "typical" 401(k) plan, 2) a "safe harbor" 401(k) plan?

Is there any guidance other than Code Sections 410(a)(1)(A) and (B), and 401(k)(1)(D)?

A company has employees who are not citizens of the United States and who do not perform any services in the United States. The employees are paid in U.S. dollars although they are not subject to income tax withholding, FICA etc. The employees are not currently in the qualified plans of the company (a 401(k) and a defined benefit), which I think is OK since I believe they would be nonresident aliens. The question is: Can they be allowed to participate in the pension and 401(k) plans? If they can participate legally, are there other issues that would make it impractical?

I am trying to locate any and all information on the New York City Police Pension Fund. I have searched the web for weeks with not much luck. I have even contacted the NYC Pension Section with no luck. I am also trying to locate IRC sec. 414h; all the search engines state it does not exist. I am most interested in tax issues, pension options, line of duty injuries, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank-you.

I've seen a few comments and had a few questions on the indexing of the dollar limit. Anyone know the likeliness of this being indexed to $35K in 2001? I've seen some projections in the past, but haven't noticed anything this year so far.

Are State Government 457 plans (with only employee contributions) required to be audited by an independent audit? If so, how often. What cite can be provided that shows an audit is required?

Does the availability of a non-pro rata partition and allocation of community property in a revocable trust as discussed in PLR 9925033 dictate that estate plans for taxable estates which are heavily weighted with retirement benefits always opt for a revocable trust(as contrasted with a testamentary) estate plan? I am just now working on the non-pro rata language discussed in the PLR and I am wondering if there is an effective way to reach a similar result in a testamentary estate plan. Any thoughts from you community property state practitioners?

Anyone know of any authority or licensing standards that would require an auditor to provide a TPA with their EIN for purposes of Schedule H item 3(d) (other than common sense)?

I have a filing that may be late or incomplete for this reason. The auditor currently will not provide the EIN because the audit may not be completed by 10/16, and they don't want their EIN on a filing of a 5500 without an audit.

Bizarre but true. I suspect this will get resolved, or we will find another source for this information, but it would be helpful if there is some authority to cite as a reason why they must provide this now.

How should dependent care flexible spending accounts be handled for employees on a paid or unpaid leave of absence?

If the employee is considered totally disabled (and therefore eligible for STD or LTD), can the employee continue his/her dependent care flexible spending account during his/her leave of absence?

A client called me to see if we could provide them any information in regards to how we handle employees with some of our plans, that reside in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, I have not had any experience dealing with Puerto Rican employees in regards to an U.S. Qualified Plan. I have no idea what type of tax laws we could be dealing with.

Therefore, if you have any information you could share with me to pass along to my client, I would appreciate it.

ER Sells his company, thus terminates his 401k and everyone becomes 100%. Q.> What about participants that have been terminated for 2 or 3 years that were not fully vested at the time they terminated? Don't they have to forfeit their unvetsed balance to the others that stayed until the ER sold the company? This is a standardized prototype document.

I have an S-Corp that is starting up a leveraged esop. They currently have a separate 401(k) plan in existence. I am trying to figure out if the employer will be able to deduct 25% of eligible comp. Since they are an S-corp they do do not qualify for the 25% limit because of the leveraged note. Most of the research is vague. Since an esop is a defined contribution plan and they are now maintaining two it looks like they will be able to take advantage of the 25% limit, but I can find nothing conclusive on this. Does anyone have any conclusions on this?

Any thoughts on how to handle the undue stresses and stains of meeting the October 16th deadline??

Any thoughts on mailing the forms after October 16th.

One org seems to think we can attach a letter to the 5500s stating the profound lateness of the software as an excuse for a late filing; while another org says they spoke with DOL and there is "no way" they will issue an extension-- they would rather see incomplete forms than no forms.

Go figure.

Plan has purchased rental property in Hilton Head, SC. The property is in the segregated account of the HCE. The property is rented out at FMV. The HCE wants to use the property 2 weeks out of the year and pay fair rental value. It seems to me that this would still constitute a prohibited transaction? Any comments or thoughts? Also, how does the HCE get the rental property out of the plan later when he has retired and wants it entirely for his own personal/rental use? Regular distribution? Seems dangerous to me.

Can someone route me to a place on here on internet where I can get a sample COBRA Election Notice.

We have a Sec. 125 cafeteria plan with fewer than 100 participants. I realize that the IRS has not excluded cafeteria plans from filing the Form 5500 and must always file regardless of the number of participants. My question is are we required to complete Schedule I? If so, do we just show our plan assets as zero and the employee salary deferrals as contributions received and subsequently as benefits paid?