Can a participant under the "purchase of pimary residence" safe harbor borrow to buy property that home will be built on? Wants to amortize for 10 yrs.

Can anyone tell me which of the mutual fund companies (if any) are offering SIMPLE IRA accounts to individual SIMPLE IRA participants where the plan has been established with another institution?

Thanks.

Mac

A local CPA says various of his clients have been telling him that there is a dollar maximum on the amount that can be accumulated in an IRA. News to him, news to me. Anyone have an idea where this is coming from? My best bet is a life insurance agent or broker giving bogus advice, but I'd be interested in knowing if there's any basis for the rumor.

Thanks.

Mac

An employer fails to make the required top heavy minimum for 1997. Can this be corrected under APRSC, or will this have to go through VCR? Also, if APRSC correctable, what would the time frame be for making up this type of contribution? Rev Proc 98-22 examples seem to go both ways. Any help would be appreciated.

I will be involuntarily separated from my employer in the very near future. They are providing all employees with a separation (monetary) package upon termination; however, they are taxing ALL employees at the 42% tax bracket. This happened to me about 4 years ago when I lost my previous job to downsizing.

Isn't this separation package a sort of "penalty payment" by the employer to stop (former) employees from suing them, etc. Is there any type of legal action in process to either stop this awful taxation and/or to assist people to recover the lost tax dollars??

My brother voluntarily retired in January after 36+ years with his employer. Prior to making his (retirement) intentions known, he inquired about the possibility of an incentive package to encourage employees to retire early. The H.R. people said there were no plans to offer any such package to employees. In April, he learned that they have in fact offered such an incentive package to employees. Is it possible for him to still obtain this incentive package, since the H.R. people LIED to him about it??

I was downsized in 1995 after 25 years with a major company. Although I had enough company service to retire, I was not old enough. Now, my former employer is merging with another company. I understand it is my former employer's aim to FORCE all downsized employees to take their pension after they reach age 50. Apparently, they are not planning on offering the pension in a "lump sum," just monthly.

Can my former employer FORCE this upon us??

Owners receive a W-2 as well as a K-1'. Can 401(k) deferrals be based on total compensation from both sources?

I've been told that the IRS will help us locate missing participants. I've also been told that the SSA (Social Security Administration) will too. Has anyone had any success with either of these entities locating missing participants and, if so, how do we go about contacting them for this help?

I thought that I once saw a revenue ruling regarding the treatment by a qualified retirement plan of former employees. That is, former employees could be treated no worse than active employees. Thus, if the employer paid administrative expenses on behalf of active employees, it could not charge the accounts of former employees (to encourage the former employees to withdraw their money). Does anyone remember the number of this revenue ruling? Is my memory correct that it was, in fact, a revenue ruling?

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Charlie Stevens

Michael Best & Friedrich LLP

Has anyone dealt with a 403(B) plan that had a proper employer sponsoring it (a 501©(3) organization), but that had let some employees of a for-profit subsidiary also creep in?

Would this be a candidate for TVC and/or APRSC, as now folded into EPCRS?

Has there ever been any real IRS enforcement on this point?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Can anyone confirm whether or not USERRA rights of reinstatement, benefit parity etc. are applicable to persons who voluntarily leave employment to join the military or to upgrade existing military skills?

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Looking of information on existing benefit plans that include paid time off that is not earned time, vacation time or sick time for people who are adopting a child or a father who wants to take time off for the birth of his child.

Must a defined benefit plan using elapsed time credit a terminating employee with benefit and vesting service credit for period beyond his termination date represented by the amount of accrued vacation paid upon termination of employment?

We are in the process of rewriting our disability/LOA policy and want to utilize it at all our US locations. However, it may cause at some locations, a hardship in regards to cost and have serious business implications. Beyond the 12 week FMLA law how long do companies hold positions open for employees on disability? At what point are employees who are on disability terminated? What benefits remain in effect during disability/loa and who pay the cost? Are vacations pro-rated for people on disability? How about bonuses - are they pro-rated?

I would appreciate any thoughts, ideas, etc that any of you have that can help us in our policy development.

A client had operated a business for 5 years as a Sole Prop., and recently changed to a C Corp. effective 1/1/99. The client also wishes to establish a SEP plan for 1999. Question: Can we use the 5 years of Sole Prop. service for purposes of establishing maximum service eligibility (i.e., 3) on a 5305 SEP?

Help! What can we do in the case of a merger of two 401(k) plans (a smaller into a bigger) where we failed (a long time ago) to get proper written authority to merge the smaller into the bigger plan by amending the small plan document. All the investments were liquidated and moved into the new plan, it seems without authority. Also someone messed up and required the employees of the smaller, merged corporation to ENROLL in the bigger plan in order to participate (i.e., they didn't automatically become participants in the bigger plan and wouldn't get to contribute or get matching contributions unless they enrolled). Has anyone ever dealt with this? What can we do?

Here is the set-up. Taxpayer has had a traditional IRA for several years, making non-deductible contributions for approximately 10 years (therefore a total of $20,000 has been contributed.) The monies were invested in a high-risk fund, consequently the remaining balance is about $3,000. He directs the bank that handles the IRA to transfer the funds to a ROTH managed by one of the big investment firms.

I have a suspicion that he has blown the opportunity to claim the $17,000 loss by this direct transfer. I am of the opinion, that the only way to preserve the loss is to take physical possession of the $3,000, and even wait out the 60 day period. Then, open a Roth as usual.

Anyone have any comments? I cannot find anything specific when the Traditional IRA has lost so much and then gets converted.

Thanks.

Ken.

I have been getting conflicting information from the IRS on just what is included in the modified adjusted gross income to determine the dollar amt. for the limitation of the conversion of the roth ira.

I retired and I took a lump-sum distribution from my 401K and am using the 5 or 10 year option to pay the taxes. The distribution is reported on part 3 of form 4972 and is not reported on the 1040 form and is not shown in line 33 on the 1040 form (adjusted gross income). Do you know of any case

where it is added to the modified agi for the purpose of determining the

eligibility for a roth ira conversion?

Thanks for your help!!

CAN A SELF-EMPLOYED INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTE TO A ROTH(OR REGULAR)IRA IN ADDITION TO A SEP(SIMPLE)IRA? IN OTHER WORDS FOLLOWING THE GUIDELINES FOR A SEP-IRA ALSO CONTRIBUTE $2,000 TO A ROTH. THANK YOU