For anyone who may have missed today's BNA Daily Tax Report, it reports that Employee Plans agents in each of the four regions will begin initiating "on their own" (i.e., not at the request of the Exempt Organizations Division) audits of section 403(B) plans. In particular, Assistant Commissioner for Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations Evelyn Petschek's fiscal 1999 EP/EO Program Letter directs each region to examine "at least five" public school 403(B) arrangements within their jurisdiction. This information came from IRS Employee Plans Senior Tax Law Special Robert Architect, and was announced at the American Society of Pension Actuaries' annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Architect indicates that these audits have already begun. Has anyone on this board experienced one? What questions are being examined? How tough are the auditing agents being?

[Note: This message was edited by CVCalhoun]

For anyone who may have missed today's BNA Daily Tax Report, it reports that Employee Plans agents in each of the four regions will begin initiating "on their own" (i.e., not at the request of the Exempt Organizations Division) audits of section 403(B) plans. In particular, Assistant Commissioner for Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations Evelyn Petschek's fiscal 1999 EP/EO Program Letter directs each region to examine "at least five" public school 403(B) arrangements within their jurisdiction. This information came from IRS Employee Plans Senior Tax Law Special Robert Architect, and was announced at the American Society of Pension Actuaries' annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Architect indicates that these audits have already begun. Has anyone on this board experienced one? What questions are being examined? How tough are the auditing agents being?

[Note: This message was edited by CVCalhoun]

Can an ER put more than $30,000 into an Age Weighted PST? I thought the only way to do that way to go with a defined benefit plan. Thanks for any explanations!

Can you share your rate increase for 1999? Our POS Plan (self insured) for 865 members and 1500 lives is increasing for 1999 at 9.67%. Want to know if others have similar increases. Thank you.

The chart of maximum limits subject to inflation indexing at my employee benefits legal resource site has now been amended to include the newly announced 1999 limits. Among other things, the chart shows limits under sections 403(B), 415, 401(k), and 457, as well as the Social Security wage base and Social Security and Medicare tax rates, for 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999.

When doing 401(B) testing, do you exclude employees of a foreign subsidiary? The sponsor maintains sites in Costa Rica and Canada. All of the employees are citizens of those countries and work exclusively at those sites. The exclusion of non-resident alien does not seem to apply in this case. Looking for a code cite to demonstrate answer to sponsor.

Can anyone direct me to a website that can provide current regs/laws and requirements for designing a self-funded dental plan? (I need information such as required language for SPDs or required benefit levels)

Thanks!

Suppose an employee is hired midyear and signs up for $3,000, then, later, the employee mentions he/she signed up and had $3,000 deducted from previous employer.

The employee will have $6,000 deducted pre-tax when only $5,000 is an allowed deduction for the year. Can the employee change the current deduction to correct the error (without a family status change)? If not, what happens to the employee at the end of the year?

The new law increases the limit on involuntary cash-outs from $3,500 to $5,000. Out Plan Document (combined Profit Sharing and 401(k)) is being updated by our Trustee to reflect the change. Are we required to notify our current TRD's of the change? and require them to distribute?

Looking for information on industry scale wages for Plan Administration. Small (>1,000)companies.

I am working w/ a plan that recently converted a division's employees to collectively bargained union status. Apparently the group was given the option to be covered under a plan for collectively bargained people but opted not to do that. Instead, this group continues to participate in the employer's DC 401(k) plan. I believe I have to test ADP twice - once for the union group and once for everyone else who is eligible.

Do I have to test separately for top heavy? I have read IRC 416 and the regs and cannot find anything on this issue. Does the silence in the regs mean I just test for top heavy as I always have (one group)? I am concerned because of the req't to split the groups for ADP. This group as a whole is close to top heavy - if I have to break off the union balances onto their own test, likely the other group's key balances would exceed 60%.

Does anyone have any experience w/ this issue? Thank you.

Can anybody direct me to some good benchmarking survey information (free) regarding vesting schedules under 401(k) plans?

A check was sent to a participant in 1997 and a 1099-R was issued for 1997. It now turns out the participant never cashed the check. What should the Plan Sponsor do with respect to the 1099-R which has, of course, already been submitted to the IRS?

The chart of maximum limits subject to inflation indexing at my employee benefits legal resource site has now been amended to include the newly announced 1999 limits. Among other things, the chart shows limits under sections 415, 403(B), 401(k), and 457, as well as the Social Security wage base and Social Security and Medicare tax rates, for 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. It also includes the 401(a)(17) limits on compensation taken into account, both under the general rules and under the special rule for grandfathered participants in governmental plans which, on July 1, 1993, followed the 401(a)(17) rules.

[Note: This message was edited by CVCalhoun]

i would like to know where should i get information about creating a new web search engine

I work for a non-profit organization which is very generous with employee benefits. My benefits manual has a warning about failing to communicate and administar employee benefits under federal law. Does this fall under ERISA? If a benefit was denied even by ignorance of law, what recourse would employees have and where can I get a copy of these laws?

A plan provides for act increases for late ret.

The plan changes act equiv in 1994, from an interest and mort table to a table of act increases w/ no reference to specific assumptions.

A participant reaches age 65 in 1991 and retires in 1999.

My feeling is that his act increased benefit s/b on old basis to 1994 and then perhaps on new basis (less generous) from 1994. The Plan just uses less generous new basis.

Any thoughts on what is acceptable approach. Perhaps the old basis is only basis that s/b used since his entire age 65 pension was accrued before 1994.

gary

I am working on a plan in which one of the employees went from full-time to part-time work. She was a participant in the plan, then she quit for about 4 months, and now she works once or twice each month if needed. Because she was a participant and did not incur a break-in-service, can she still defer? If she defers now (the document does not specify a minimum number of hours that have to be worked after the 1000 hour eligibility requirement has been met) will she incur 5 breaks in service after 5 years and then have to stop deferring? Please Help!

I am also working on a plan that has a participant who cleans the kitchen monthly. She gets an extra check for $100 each month for this cleaning and it is counted in her W-2 wages. The document defines compensation as W-2 wages; however, this lady doesn't want deferrals taken out of this extra check, only from her regular employee checks. Can she do this?

[This message has been edited by JCONNER (edited 10-23-98).]

I have called my plan admn.-and/or 3rd party admn's office- three times since August 26th, 1998. After the third time I was informed by the company 401K plan admn. that all correspondence must be in writing. From that point I have sent three requests for hardship withdrawal forms and twice I have asked in writing for input on plan information and instructions (sent via certified mail). I received a copy of the plan, which I did not have prior to the requests, and three forms for things like salary reduction (% amount to deduct) etc. but no form for a hardship withdrawal. I have contacted the Dept. of Labor, Pension and Benefits Admn. with carbon copies of all the written requests this week. I do no know what to do to motivate my former employer to release hardship withdrawal forms and information beyond what I have done. Any suggestions? Is there a legal limit on responding to these requests?