Currently I am working on a project that involves employee retention.

The focus is employee work/life benefits. When I say work/life benefits, I am referring to benefits that are not insurance related, such flex-hours, job sharing, summer hours, things of this sort.

I am seeking ideas that you may have @ your company or that you may of heard of or experienced @ another or even ideas that you would like to see implemented.

Any suggestions or idea.

Thanks in advance for your ideas?

Do non-412 plans need to complete the Schedule R? It seems like all you are doing is reporting the EIN under which payments were made on line 2. There is nothing to report in Line 1 and nothing to report in Line 3. What are other preparers doing?

How do you design a bonus plan for non-exempt employees without having to include the bonus payments as part of their regular pay as required by the FLSA?

A plan sponsor has an ESOP plan which is failing the ratio percentage test for 410(B) minimum coverage. The plan sponsor also has a 401(k) plan.

When doing the average benefit percentage test:

1.Do the 2 plans have to be aggregated? (I have read in some places that ESOPs and union plans do not need to be aggregated, but other sources seem to indicate that ESOPs do need to be aggregated - has this been changed?)

2. What employees can be excluded? (Do all employees that have met the eligibility requirements for either plan have to be included, or is it possible to have some type of statutory exclusion of employees, like excluding employees under age 21 or less than a year of service?)

[Edited by John A on 07-13-2000 at 09:41 AM]

Has anyone given any thoughts or seen any articles on how the new law allowing electronic signatures will apply to various employee/spouse signature requirements under retirement plans?

if a participant receives treatmet from a non-medical person, (such as acupuncture)does the person providing the service have to be licensed or certified to make the expenses eligible for re-imbursement?

An employee has an IRS lien against him. He has $$$ in a NQDC plan. He dies and the NQDC plan has a contractual obligation to pay the widow a death benefit. Is the payment to the widow subject to the IRS lien? Is there any authority? Thanks.

Does anyone have any information on so call "Flip Flop Funding"? It has to do with the timing of deposits if the sponser maintains both a DB and a DC plan in order to avoid the 25% of comp limit.

Have a client with oriental rugs and classic automobiles as plan assets. These assets have not, in my opinion, been properly appraised. The employer wants to move to segregated accounts for each participant. The HCE wants to take all of the rugs and cars into his account instead of liquidating them. I say he should liquidate these assets then create the segregated accounts. Any thoughts, comments or DOL/IRS cites would be appreciated.

What about real estate in a segregated account? Any problems? This ER has actually purchased property at tax auctions with the intent that the property owners will repay the real estate taxes and the Plan Sponsor will never actually take posession of the property. One piece of property is subject to $2M in liens. I'm really concerned here.

I am involved with the merger of two multiemployer plans;one plan is administered by my company and the other is not; does anyone have a checklist of items that should be requested from the firm that has been administering the other plan ( this plan is merging into our plan); for example, issues regarding withdrawal liability I would think would be addressed by the other firm ? Are there other items that should be requested ?

I have a Section 125 plan filer. The plan allows participants to defer a portion of their salary to cover 25% of medical insurance premiums not paid for by the plan sponsor. The Schedule F filing is straight forward. However, I am not certain about the 5500 filing itself.

The plan had about 140 participants at the beginning of 1999. The sponsor remits all premiums (the 75% paid by the sponsor and the 25% paid by the participant) directly to the insurance carrier thus, an unfunded plan. No VEBA exists. If I understand the 5500 directions properly, I need to file two (2) 5500's since the plan had greater than 100 participants at the beginning of the plan year. One for the premiums covered under the 125 plan (including Sch F) and one for the 75% paid for by the sponsor - yes?

Are there any restriction on whether or not an LLC. can participate in a 125 or 401(k)?

[Edited by Scott Fielding on 07-17-2000 at 03:56 PM]

In order to be considered a Key employee for the purposes of Section 125 nondiscrimination testing, does an employee need to meet ALL FOUR or ONLY ONE of the following criteria:

1. Officer of the employer . . .

2. >5% owner . . .

3. >1% owner w/annl comp >$150,000 . . .

4. one of the top-ten employee-owners. . .

If an employer failed to timely deposit any participant contributions to the plan, a prohibited transaction occurred. Although the 1999 Form 5500 has been extended to October 16, 2000, the 1999 Form 5330 reporting the excise tax is still due July 31, 2000. What are other firms doing with respect to this issue?

In order for a bank to set up an ESOP for its employees, does it have to maintain the ESOP through its bank holding company or is it otherwise subject to any bank holding company rules? If so, what the relevant citations?

Has anyone ever been involved in a situation where benefits were increased for vested deferred participants? I have a client who would like some ideas and has asked me "what do other people do?" I told him it's not very common, but I would check around. I have asked most of my local colleagues but most of them have never done it either.

Has anyone done it? What type of formula did you use to arrive at the increase? Did you recognize how many years they have been terminated?

I'm interested in what has been done in practice

If I have a loan against my 401(k) as an owner of a C corp and want to elect S corp status, what happens to the loan, which is prohibited as the owner of as S corp?

For a calendar year plan (1999), must I file for an extension to go beyond 7/31/2000 or is it automatic for 1999?

Hi,

This past April 15th I paid a whopping big tax bill to the IRS and California state for a 1999 conversion of my traditional IRA to a Roth. Am I correct in assuming that when next April 15th comes around that I can take the state taxes paid for the conversion as a deduction when I itemize on Schedule A?

Thanks for any help

- JC

We are now starting to send out 5500s to Plan Sponsors who are not required to file SARs.I usually use one of two form letters, one for forms to be filed without 5558 extensions and one for forms with an extension. In the letter for froms with an extension, I warn the Plan Sponsor that failure to make the extended deadline can expose it to penalties back to the original filing deadline.

Under the automatic extension for 1999 5500s, would the penalty for failing to file by October 16, 2000 be computed from October 16, or from the original filing date, even though the forms were not available on that earlier date? The press release merely extended the deadline, not the filing date, therefore it would appear that the DOL or IRS could impose penalties back to the original filing date. Any comments?