A company installs a new safe harbor plan in July with proper notice to employees in May. The 3% nonelective safe harbor is used. Effective date is 1/01/00. Deferrals begin 7/01/00. The 3% safe harbor contribution is made for full year comp. Anyone have a problem with this?

If the effective date of the plan is 7/01/00, would full year comp have to be used anyway for the safe harbor contribution? Thanks.

Client is adding a k feature to profit sharing plan effective 6/1/2000.

Only non-HCE terminates 5/8.

Does non-HCE have to be included in k test for 2000?

Thanks

Pat Insall, CPC

Can an employer allow a hardship withdrawal for a reason other than the standard 4? (medical, education, residence, eviction).

We have always administered our plan according to these 4 reasons only, but our plan administrator is telling us that, as the employer, we can authorize a hardship withdraw for other reasons.

I don't know what your employer's benefit programs are like, but the idea that comes to my mind is to use the VEBA amounts to pay group medical or dental premiums.

Someone help me settle a bet.

Jim owns 100% of company A

Jim owns 51% of several other companies

Jim wants to set up a SIMPLE plan for Company A. Is there a control group situation with the other companies? The companies have nothing to do with each other and there is no other common ownership.

Our summary annual report tells a participant that they are entitled to receive a copy of the "full annual report". I am saying that this refers to a copy of the complete Form 5500 and related schedules, excluding the SSA. I'd like to know what others are providing to participants in response to this question.

An employee of our Company was sent a notice from her legal husband's employer that she waz no longer covered under her husband's medical plan effective end of the month due to the fact that she is not living with her husband. She moved out recentl with her minor child.

Is this allowable?

The employee is eligible for coverage under our medical plan but will have to pay a premium.

Thnaks

Can anyone help with the audit requirements of a multiple employer plan? What is the federal regulation for these plans?

My client has an overfunded DB plan and would like to refund employee contributions back to the employees who made them some 20-30 years ago. 9 out of the 10 employees that have ee contns. in the plan are union. I find no guidance that would permit such a withdrawal. Any thoughts of other, especially experts in this area, would be greatly appreciated.

If a 401(k) plan in which the 3% non-elective safe-harbor contribution is utilized requires end of year employment in order to share in the employer discretionary non-elective contribution, would a terminated participant who receives only the 3% safe-harbor contribution be considered benefiting for purposes of 410(B) coverage testing on the employer non-elective portion of the plan?

If not, then what if the above plan is top-heavy and also requires 1,000 hours to share in the employer discretionary non-elective contribution. A person employed at the end of the year with less than 1,000 hours who receives only a 3% top-heavy minimum employer contribution normally would be considered benefiting for 410(B) coverage testing, but what if the 3% top-heavy minimum was satisfied with the 3% safe-harbor contribution?

How does the consistency rule apply to the change in residence as a status change? What if someone moves to an adjacent apartment? Please provide examples.

Participant A is married to Participant B, both Participants have a 403(B) plan at the same vendor. Participant A dies and Participant B is the Beneficiary, can Participant B take over Participant's A 403(B) account by simply changing the name of the policy or does the 1 and 5 year rule apply?

I have a client that is interested in choosing a provider that offers personal brokerage accounts in their 401(k) plan. Can anyone share any experiences with this type of 401(k) specifically with regard to the fiduciary liability.

If an S corp shareholder takes a participant loan, what is the correction?

At the time the loan was taken it was not a loan due to not meeting the participant loan exemption rules, so it was a distribution at that time.

This is also a prohibited transaction. The fact that the transaction was taxable does not fix the prohibited transaction. The "loan" should also be repaid to the plan, creating basis for the taxpayer. Each year the "loan" is outstanding the 15% exise tax applies to the interest.

Comments on my short anaysis? Anyone dealt with fixing this type of transaction?

Does anyone have any guiadance on weather a Plan with a liberal eligibility provision ( say three months) can disregard these participants in trying to determine if a partial plan termination has occured.

In making a determination if a partial termination has occured can you ignore plan participants who have not worked over one year or have attained age 21? The Plan's eligibility provision is more liberal than this.

I would appreciate it if someone would provide assistance with the following question and apologize if it is too basic for this forum. A non profit with one employee for the next several years and possibly two after that time wants to start a 403 (B) plan and have the option of employer contributions matching some percentage of employee salary deferrals which are expected to be about 10K. Are there any problems with the non discrmination test when there is only one employee? Is there a book that could be consulted to explain the non discrimination test in general and the problems that might be presented by the above description. Thank you.

Rev. Procedure 90-39 sets forth the porcedure for taking back non-deductable contributions. How does an employer provide documentation that employer contributions were "conditioned on deductability"? We dont have employer resolutions to that effect.

This may sound simplistic, but it's been a long day. A member of a controlled group of companies must combine all companies in the group when testing coverage and general discrimination, among other things, for its qualified plan. The same applies if the plan is a SEP, right? Thanks.

Does anyone know company(ies) that find buyers of companies to acquire excess assets?

I have Karel & Associates in Illinois. Any Others?