My filing status is Married Filing Separately. I have not lived with my spouse for 13 years but am not divorced. Can I contribute to a Roth IRA?

In a non-contributory, non-ERISA 403(B) "arrangement" (i.e., individual annuities)what is an employer's potential liability, if any, for deferrals/contributions in excess of 402(g), 403(B)(2)(A) (MEA), or 415?

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We are a small telecommunications equipment dealer and have approximately 20 employees....how are the smaller companies handling the increases? Are you passing the cost on to ee or is the company absorbing? Are you making any changes, add or delete, to the current health plan? (Our health plan is PPO with a $250 or $1000 deductible.) Any suggestions would be very welcome....

Both the trustee and the employer filed a 1096 and a 1099-R with the IRS for the same distribution. How should this be corrected? The concern is that if a "corrected" 1096 is done showing 0, this will negate both of the 1096's filed (each of which would be correct if the other wasn't filed). Suggestions?

All responses are appreciated, thanks!

Regarding Return of Exces Distributions, when would 2 1/2 months after a 12/30 Plan Year End be? Would it be 3/14 or 3/15?

Regarding Return of Exces Distributions, when would 2 1/2 months after a 12/40 Plan Year End be? Would it be 3/14 or 3/15?

We are a self-funded medical and dental plan, with benefits for both active and retired employees. We are very interested in a PPO arrangement. How would this effect retired employees on Medicare? Could we institue a PPO for active employees only?

Under HIPAA, it is my understanding that if an individual is confined in a hospital on the effective date of insurance coverage, a carrier could not exclude or not pay for that hospitalization based on health status discrimination. For example, individual goes into hospital on February 1, becomes effective with health plan on March 1, is discharged from hospital on April 15. Individual has a commercial POS plan (non-HMO). Who is responsible for paying for the hospitalization? Must the previous carrier pay for the entire hospitalization? Generally, I have seen new insurance carriers delay coverage until after the hospital discharge (this goes against HIPAA), therefore the previous ins. carrier pays for the hospital bill. However, in my example, the person becomes effective with a new ins. carrier midway through the hospitalization. For billing purposes, a hospital is not going to bill one insurance carrier for services rendered from Feb. 1 to Februray 28 and bill the new ins. carrier from March 1 through April 15. How does your company handle a situation such as this. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

We are currently using OTC (an old dos version of option tracking software by Share

Data). Looking to update to a windows version.

Any recommendations.

Participant, married with living spouse, age 77, dies without having filed any forms with custodian. Distributions had been taken for prior years that exceeded even single life minimum. Beneficiaries are spouse (34%), and three younger children (22% each).

Question 1 - What is the IRS going to assume as the method selected? We believe it is joint lie expectancy with spouse, and recalculation of both lives.

Question 2 - We further assume that distributions for the beneficiaries (from a beneficiary IRA, registered in the name of the deceased) will be based on the life expectancy of the oldest (in this case, the spouse) beneficiary, and that upon her death, the remaining beneficiaries will be required to take full account distribution by the end of the year following her death. Is this correct?

Question 3 - We finally assume that the spouse, age 70 can take her portion of the IRA and roll it over into an IRA in her name, and name new beneficiaries and select a new RMD method. Is this correct?

I am looking to gain some insight from employers who currently cover contraceptives in their medical plans what kind of added costs have incurred versus any tangible cost savings which have resulted by adding contraceptive coverage to the medical plan.

I would also like to obtain some suggestions on how employers are covering contraceptives, in particular under a PPO or Co-pay plan design.

Our section 125 premium conversion plan year is July 1st to June 30th. An employee just notifed us that when he signed up for his health insurance package in June 1999, effective coverage date of July 1, 1999, he signed up for the premium conversion plan, but just found out that his premiums (back to July 1999) were deducted from his paycheck post-tax, instead of pre-tax (again back to July 1999). We found his enrollment form and verified that he did request premium conversion, but the payroll clerk input it into our payroll system wrong.

I have had discussions with the IRS where they indicated retro-active corrections for administrative errors can be done. However, to make this correction, the payroll system said they would refund his entire premium (from July 1999 to present) untaxed, then collect the entire premium pre-tax. To do this, they need to spread it out over several pay periods, half of which cross over into the new plan year (after June 30th).

Does anyone know whether this type of correction due to an employer error can/cannot be done where it crosses plan years? Can you give me an IRS cite so that I can show the employee?

QDRO says that AP should get 50% of P's accrued benefit in a DB plan, and AP is considered surviving spouse for QJSA. P starts payments from plan then dies. Before death, P's monthly annuity payments would have been $1000 without the QDRO. Per the QDRO P gets $500 and AP gets $500 (assume survivor coverage cost is free in the DB plan-- just to make it simple). What does AP get after P dies? Does AP get her $500 plus $250 (50% of P's $500)? Or does she just get $500? Does it matter if the payments is a shared payment or a separate interest? What does it matter what it is called in this type of arrangement?

Client terminating Pension Plan and closing office, and intends to pay 2 clerical employees severance pay. He would prefer not to include this severance as "compensation" when computing required pension contribution. Is this permitted? Thanks for all input...

Just returned from the EA meetings and they made it clear that all OBRA FFL Bases in a funding method which does not produce amortization bases (ie:aggregate) should be wipe out and no new bases created. This can be done for either the 1999 or 2000 valuation.

There was some discussion regarding an FIL w/ a zero unfunded and most people agreed that it would also apply, since the Regs state you must change to aggregate in this case.

I noticed a question on the board about investment income and the answers surprised me that if no earned income then regardless of investment income, one can contribute to a Roth.

Suppose now that my earned income qualifies for Roth contributions, but adding my investment income to earned income would exceed the Roth threshold, can I still contribute to a Roth? I thought this was a solid no - so why is it possible the answer to the first question is yes?

Confused

What protection from creditors, if any, do long term disability payments enjoy?

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The original plan document required 5 years of service before a participant could withdraw up to 50% of his vested balance in employer contributions. The plan is being amended for other reasons, but has also changed the requirements for hardship withdrawals to 6 years of service which would make the participant fully vested. Does this amendment fall under the anti-cutback rules and disqualify the plan? Please provide cites for any answers, if possible.

What action should a plan take if a participant who has an outstanding files for bankruptcy? The Plan received a proof of claim from the bankruptcy court. Should we declare the loan in default and give the participant a 1099?