Can partners participate in a dependent care assistance program? If so, how would this work? Can the partner elect to have a certain dollar amount set aside in a reimbursement account with the partnership reimbursing him/her when expenses are incurred, similar to common law employees? Are there any tax disadvantages to the partner?

A 401(k)plan currently under audit has been asked to correct an error in which a matching contribution was made to a HCE based on total comp., not comp. limited by 401(a)(17). The IRS has not identified two similar occurences that took place in the year under audit. Due to the size of the plan (over 200 participants) and the small amount involved (total overage is less than $3K), the two combined errors probably constitute an insignificant error which could be corrected under APRSC, despite the audit. Presuming the employer corrects under APRSC, shouldn't the employer disclose the two additional, corrected errors to the IRS?

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I have a 401(k) plan with a participant who is 100% vested, terminated during 1999 and is 60 years of age. The distribution paperwork submitted to the asset custodian did not indicate to the custodian to withhold the required 20% as it should have. How can I "fix" this error? When the participant files his 1999 1040 should he go ahead and pay the tax at that time or perhaps he should cut a check to the plan sponsor for the 20% so that they can make the necessary deposit and prepare Form 945? Also, does the above scenario lead to negative consequences (ie: penalties) for the plan sponsor?

A C-corporation with an existing ESOP plan became an S-corp for the 1998 calendar plan year. The S-corp has Schedule k-1 income. Does the income need to be allocated to the ESOP plan as a shareholder? If the income is allocated in the ESOP, on what basis is it allocated? Is it allocated on ending shares? Is it deposited in the cash account? In this case, the company is not wholly owned by the ESOP.

Does anyone have language for bottom up qnecs that they have submitted to IRS and gotten approval for.

I see plenty of language in plans that say a qnec(or qmac) will be made to a plan in an amount sufficient to pass the test. I'm concerned that this language is very loose language for doing a qnec that only goes to, for example, 1 person in the nhce group.

Any thoughts out there???- THANKS

Our company is looking at our mileage reimbursement for our employees. Currently we are paying 28 cents per mile. We are trying to see what the rest of the market place is doing in the Northern Virginia/Washington area on mileage reimbursement.

Does the State of Wisconsin allow individual health policies, which are written in the state and cover residents of the state, to be non-renewed because of a change in the insured's health status?

As Dave Baker has noted, BenefitsLink and I have collaberated on an expanded Employee Benefits Library of legal research links. Members of this board may be interested to know that one of the pages in the Library deals specifically with governmental plans research links and another deals with church plans research links.

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Employee benefits legal resource site

[This message has been edited by CVCalhoun (edited 09-27-1999).]

As Dave Baker has noted, BenefitsLink and I have collaberated on an expanded Employee Benefits Library of legal research links. Members of this board may be interested to know that one of the pages in the Library deals specifically with governmental plans research links.

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Employee benefits legal resource site

[This message has been edited by CVCalhoun (edited 09-27-1999).]

How much can or should a school district get involved with vendor selection and still keep a plan "non-ERISA"? In assisting a financial planning client, I discovered that the school system she works for has a list of vendors that seems to be a haphazard list of the first 25 insurance companies that any employee came forward and asked for. Very few on the list seem to be quality choices and many major players are missing. I would like to approach the school system to help them rationalize this process of selecting vendors. So my question is, How much can the sponsor get involved? Can there be a procedure that limits the number of vendors? Can or should any "due dilligence" be done? I would appreciate any comments or information on the subject? Thanks

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Geoff

We were just hired by an employer to provide consulting sevices (document, testing, etc) to a 401k plan. They are investing their assets with MFS, where each participant will have an individual account. MFS will be responsible for receiving, processing and maintaining records of employee contributions and accounts. Pretty standard stuff.

MFS wants to have a service agreement signed between us and them (even though we don't work for them or get paid by them). Perhaps, it might be a condition of us being allowed to view electronically the employee/employer accounts.

The service agreement requires information that we consider proprietary and confidential. It does delineate (somewhat) which organization is responsible for what functions -- which we would clarify with the client anyway -- that's OK. However, the service agreement in addition asks for things that a prospect/client might ask (fee structure, number of clients, references, ownership structure, etc.), and confidential information, and they are not the prospect/client.

What's going on? What is the experience of you folks out there? We work with other investment firms and haven't seen this before. Have you? What do you do?

How are esops used in estate planning ot reduce estate tax liability?

If I have a client who owns all of the stock of a corporation and he pays income tax of about $400,000 every year, how can starting an esop reduce his taxable income? He is only willing to give up about 20% of the company to key employees.

[This message has been edited by Angie Horn (edited 09-27-1999).]

Is it acceptable to use a rate lower than the IRS acceptable rate of 120% of the Annual Long-Term Applicable Federal Rate when calculating a pre-59 1/2 Qualified Plan Distribution? Also, I was told by Universal Pension that the rate for September is 7.16% but Brentmark lists 7.53% for the rate for September. Who is right and what rate do we take 120% of? I appreciate any help!!

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[This message has been edited by SPollock (edited 09-25-1999).]

I have a question about COBRA eligibility.

I have voluntarily terminated employment with my previous employer and is offered COBRA; however, I have yet to make an election to accept or decline COBRA and is still within the 60 days limit.

I then accepted employement with my current employer and is covered under a group plan. If I terminate employement with my current employer, can I still elect to accept COBRA from my previous employer?

My bank is custodian for an IRA. The customer is having securities trades directed by his broker (with a major brokerage house). The broker claims he needs the bank's own TIN for tax reporting purposes. I thought that the customer's SSN was normally used. Am I missing something?

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Code Section 401(a)(26), which required that qualified plans cover the lesser of 40% of an employer's workforce or 50 employees, since the plan year beginning in 1997 doesn't apply to defined contribution plans. However, there's still a cross-reference to 401(a)(26) in Code Section 403(B)(12).

Normally, I'd say that 401(a)(26) doesn't apply to the nonelective deferral portion of a 403(B) plan either because it's not a defined benefit plan. However, the IRS audit guidelines that were updated this summer still refer to 401(a)(26) rules, not that they elaborate at all.

Does this mean that the IRS thinks that the nonelective deferral portion of a 403(B) is still subject to the 50 employee / 40% rule? Has anyone already spoken to the IRS about this?

A question has come up regarding adding dependents following a family status change. Scenario is this, an employee is enrolled as employee only but has children that are not currently enrolled in the group plan. The employee has a family status change, gets married, and makes a mid year change from single to family coverage. Can he add dependents, the children not covered previously, and new dependents at the same time or will the children he had not previously covered have to wait for the next open enrollment period?

A question has come up regarding adding dependents following a family status change. Scenario is this, an employee is enrolled as employee only but has children that are not currently enrolled in the group plan. That employee has a family status change, gets married, and makes a mid year change from single to family coverage. Can he add dependents, the children not covered previously, and new dependents at the same time or will the children he had not previously covered have to wait for the next open enrollment period?

The accounting firm for a new client performed a limited scope audit on the defined contribution plan. The problem is that a limited scope audit is only available if the plan's assets are in trust and the plan's assets are in custodial accounts. The problem has been corrected prospectively, but what do we do about past years?