A participant took a hardship withdrawal. The employer should have suspended his 401(k) contributions for a period of 12 months. However, during this tenure (minus a month or so), the participant continued to defer compensation and received matching contributions from the employer. What are the tax ramifications? How do I correct this?

Thanks!

I must admit little exposure to gov't plans, and I would like to know answers to the following: gov't DB plans typically use 10-year or more vesting schedules?; is there an example of a public-sector plan that does not refund employee contributions?; gov't DB plans are not subject to Minimum Funding Standards? and these plans do not need the services of an enrolled actuary?

I must admit to needing effort to keep a straight face while reading parts of the article, but its use of statistics and descriptions of "typical" plan provisions is disturbing. Please help me clarify this.

I recently heard a talk by the founder of a company that is trying to get alternative medicine into the managed care system. It seems to me that credentialing of providers is a big issue. Anyone with experience as to employer health plans covering alternative medicine.

Is it permissable to group employees based on years of service; e.g., employees with up to 15 years of service get x% contribution, employees with 16-20 years of service get y% , and ees with over 20 years get z%. Or can allocation groups only be based on criteria other than service?

I have a question on severance pay. In determining who is highly compensated, do I include severance pay in my definition of compensation?

If an employee has completed sufficient service to meet plan eligibility, terminates before the plan's effective date and is subsequently rehired, can the rule of parity be invoked to require the employee to resatisfy eligibility (assume rule of parity conditions satisfied). Since the rule is drafted in terms of nonvested "participants" (410(a)(5)(d))), can it be applied to employees who haven't yet become participants?

Or, in holland's words, am I being "hypertechnical"?

What do folks do with yo-yo employees?

Is it necessary for an individually trusteed plan to obtain a trust ID # from the IRS, or is it ok to use the EIN? I previously for a trust company which served as corporate trustee, and we always got a trust ID #.

I am in the process of reviewing various PPO's across the country. Is there any clearinghouse or informational material where I can get info on these around the country?

An individual is a 100% owner of a corporation. He retired a year ago when he was 55 and stopped earning income through the corporation. The corporation still exists so that he can retain some group insurance benefits. The corporation maintains a profit sharing plan in which he and 1 other person have account balances.

The question is; If the corporation now terminates the profit sharing plan, can he take some of his account balance out as taxable income without incurring the 10% penalty since he "terminated employment" when he was 55. The remaining amount of his account balance will be rolled to an IRA.

Plan sponsor is real estate management firm. Plan buys property from unrelated party and plan sponsor is to manage the property. Can the plan enter into contract with plan sponsor to manage the property? Something doesn't seem right.

We have acquired a company and plan to bring them on our p/r and benefits 7/1/99. They have a 125 cafeteria (unreimb med) under old employer. What are our options for bringing them to our plan mid-year? I want to provide the best option for our new employees.

I am looking for suggests, names, phone numbers of providers of retirement packages. I work for an association and am trying to set up a retirement package for our members. We have 5500 members located throughout the country. Our members are all small attorney firms of between two and ten employees. Any suggestions?

Can anyone provide a citation which indicates that loans are permitted from a 403(B)(7) arrangement? I understand that the IRS has ruled privately on this issue, but do not have a PLR cite. Thanks

I am interested in putting our company group medical plan out for bids. Can anyone provide me with information concerning research reports with respect to customer satisfaction and health care providers? Perhaps there is a web site or research group that deals with this type of information.

That's what I was hoping - one 5500 and one set of testing. And yes, the plan sponsor has changed. So I would put the new plan sponsor's EIN, etc. of page 1 of 5500, is that correct? Thanks.

I'm working on final short year 5500 filings for several plans that were merged due to a corporate acquisition. What data should I use for Line 21 completion? All plans are calendar year. For mergers that took place right after year-end (i.e. in January), is is safe to use the 1997 5500 data? Or should this info be shown as zero since there are no longer participants in the plans? Or should I get employee counts for the short period from the employers?

What steps are needed to change the plan year for various welfare plans (health, life, LTD). Can you file a long year 5500?

if one wants to determine the social security portion of a plan benefit or compute soc. security directly what options are available? Assuming one does not have predesigned software.

if a lump sum is paid out, but is under paid by say $ 10,000, what interest rate would you use to bring the underpaid portion forward with interest?

when using the GATT mortality table does it mean you must use 50%/50% blended rates? If so, where do you obtain such a table?