Okay I am going to make this easy as I swear I've read something, somewhere on this topic:

Person does not qualify to make the Roth IRA contribution due to income.  They open a traditional (back door) IRA and convert to Roth.

Question:  Can they do that regardless of any other rules?  For example, I swore I read somewhere that if the person had any other traditional IRA established, there would be taxation on the back door contribution other than conversion.  Am I losing it?  I've talked to a few IRA custodians and they no worries, I can do make the contribution without any regard to whether I have any other IRA(s) established.  True?

Thanks in advance.

A Lead Employer no longer has participating employees and will be terminating from a multiple employer plan. The plan provides for amendments, but is silent on changing the Lead Employer (named fiduciary) to another participating employer (to be determined).

Does anyone have general guidance to offer on the necessary documentation/paper trail to accomplish this?

All guidance will be greatly appreciated..... I'm not finding anything on point in my research.

Thank you

Took over a plan without knowing there was a life insurance asset. Prior bundle provider did not disclose this asset on their statements/reporting. We discovered the asset while trying to prepare the 2016 5500 and realized we were short over $1M in plan assets.  Concluded that the life insurance asset was rolled into the plan in 2015, and it appears to be an owner's life insurance policy, it is in the name of the plan and appears to have a $90,000 loan against it (not being repaid). Prior document had no indication that life insurance was allowed as a plan investment. Trying to decide if we want to keep the plan admin business or let it go since we don't have experience with life insurance as a plan asset.  We can learn, but do we want to? Is the $90,000 loan an issue? Any guidance is much appreciated.

If correct by filing the Form 5330 and paying the excise tax, can the DOL calculator be used to determine the earnings?  A VFCP filing will not be done.  I have seen where some people use the DOL calculator even when the VFCP filing will not be done.  I have also seen where it is indicated that the DOL calculator cannot be used if not filing under VFCP.  What are people actually using to determine earnings on the late deposits?

401(k) and Profit Sharing Plans with life insurance filing a 5500-SF. Are the insurance premiums reported as an expense? If yes, on which line? Or is it netted out of the gains on line 8b?

Forgive me if this is addressed elsewhere as I was unable to find.  

Client has an executive with SERP type benefit that will vest upon his upcoming retirement.  As a result, he will recognize significant Medicare taxes on the present value of the future SERP benefits in 2017.  (Executive is already maxed out on SS taxes for 2017 so no amount owed there.)  Question is how best to collect those taxes from the executive.  In the month he retirees, he will only work a short portion of the month and will not net enough regular wages to cover the significant Medicare taxes due.  

Can executive simply write check to employer to cover the remaining FICA taxes due?

Would it be possible / preferrable to withhold the full amount needed from pay for the month prior to the retirement month (even though benefits not technically recognized / vested then) since executive will net more than enough to cover during the full month of work preceding retirement?

Can employer take advantage of rule of administrative convenience and wait until 12/31/17 to recognize FICA amount then employ lag rule for withholding and collect from the SERP payments made during the first quarter of 2018?

Ideally I think everyone would just have executive pay the amount due into the employer upon retirement (out of personal funds) but that amount is not already in the employer's payroll system, etc. so question becomes how to get that added in or credited if that is possible.

I have a plan that is terminating as of 8/31/2017.  It's a 12/31 PYE. It was top heavy for the 12/31/2016 determination date so they have to make a top heavy contribution based on comp as  of 8/31/2017, correct? However, do I need to do a top heavy test for the 8/3/2017 short plan year determination date since the company and plan will no longer exist in 2018?

Thank you in advance

I have several decades of experience in the TPA industry and have developed numerous relationships with financial advisers and plan sponsors throughout the years.  A few of my colleagues and I feel the time has come for us to look into acquiring an existing book of business to jump-start building our own firm.  We are primarily looking at NJ, PA, MD, DC, and VA but anywhere down the east coast through FL is desirable.  We all have extensive 401(k)/403(b)/457(b)/457(f) experience and have also worked with actuaries on DB/Cash Balance plans.

Does anyone out there know of a resource, whether it's a search firm or a listing, that can assist in finding a small TPA (or two) that would like to sell their book of business?  I have read through multiple forums and there has been a lot of great information posted by those of you that have already gone through what we are attempting.  Any insight would be appreciated - and if you just so happen to want to sell a book of business, please let me know.

We have a client with pooled assets. The client's CPA 'manages' the items that need to be done annually. The CPA forgot to get the annual RMD for the owner processed (after several reminders). The RMD came out of the account on 1/20/17 and should have been out 12/31/16. Is the remedy a 5330? Suggestions?

A little discussion going on. Suppose you have an adult child - not a dependent - say 30 years old. Participant wants to take a hardship withdrawal to pay the tuition.

I see no problem with this under the regulation, but I suppose it could hinge on how you interpret it, and in conjunction to the reference to Code Section 152.

The regulation deems it an immediate and heavy financial need for "...the employee, or the employee's spouse, children, or dependents(as defined in section 152...)

Now, I read the reference to 152 as applying only to the definition of "dependent" and not applying to spouse or children. And therefore, the term "qualifying child" in 152 is meaningless for this question - it matters for tax purposes if determining whether the child is a dependent, but not for determining whether the hardship withdrawal to pay the tuition for "children" is allowable under the 401(k) hardship distribution rules. I think if the IRS had wanted to limit it to dependent children, they would have so specified, but they didn't.

Opinions?

I know a plan can have secondary eligibility say for people hired after a certain date for example but can I plan also have multiple eligibility provisions depending on job class? For example bank tellers are eligible to enter the plan after three months of service and loan officers have to wait one year and 1000 hours to be eligible.

401(k) Plan is failing Coverage (both Ratio and ABPT) on the Match portion. The ADP and ACP Tests are also failing.

If I use QNEC to bring in more participants (remove last day/1,000 hour requirement), can I also use that QNEC for ADP/ACP purposes?

I thought I read (somewhere) where the QNEC could not be used for the ADP or ACP Testing. But I can't locate it now.

Is there a waiver required in order to establish a 403(b) Plan for a charter school in PA, allowing the school to not participate in the state's PSER program?  If so is there much to that?

One of the owners is retiring.  The company has decided to pay him $50,000 per year over the next 10 years.  It's not deferred comp because he's not delaying any of his compensation.  He'll just continue to receive compensation for 10 more years, but won't be going to work.  If he dies during the 10 year period, the payments would continue to his spouse for the remaining time.  The accountant says it will be taxable income, but not subject to FICA or FUTA.  I did some reading on Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans, but one article said that SERP income is subject to employment taxes.  That doesn't make sense to me, but I suppose it could be true.  So, if it's not a SERP, what is it?  I assume there would have to be a written agreement to this arrangement.  

We have an existing 401(k) safe harbor plan with one year of service, age 21, quarterly entry dates.  Plan Sponsor now wants to exclude certain employees from the Plan (a division of the Plan Sponsor) that would make current participants ineligible for the Plan.  The Plan will easily pass coverage.  

I am sure that this can be done but have a colleague that says these employees will continue to be eligible even if now in an excluded class.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Participant held life insurance within a retirement plan.  The rep. on the policies advised the participant that the policies should be transferred to the participant and the participant followed that advise.  Fortunately participant is over 59 1/2 and had a distributable event.  However, the participant was not aware that the transfer constituted a taxable distribution.  We are still within 60 days of the transfer.  if the participant has sufficient outside assets can he contribute an amount to an IRA equal to the cash value less the basis and treat it as an indirect rollover?

Thanks for any guidance. 

Not sure if this is the correct forum - question is, (for a governmental entity, if it matters) - can the entity set up an HRA for former employees that also covers expenses for spouses and dependents?

I lack expertise in this area (putting it kindly) and although it seems very clear that Retiree Only HRA's are perfectly allowable, I'm not finding hard guidance that permits coverage for spouses and dependents. Or perhaps the guidance is the other way around - coverage for spouse and dependents allowed unless otherwise prohibited, and it ain't otherwise prohibited.

1. Anyone know the answer?

2. Any citations/sources you can point to? Thanks for any assistance!

Hello,

I have the following books I am looking to get rid of. They are old editions but they were not cheap. Can anyone use them?

RPF Course 1 6th edition

RPF Couse 2 6th edition

DC 1 4th edition

DC 2 5th edition

I am hoping someone can assist with this.  

I am married and have a restaurant, and I do have a few full time employees.  My husband is also self-employed but his business does not have any employees.  I have been told that he cannot have his own 401(k) as we are married and my employees would need to be covered under his plan since we are married. 

Could he establish his own SEP IRA for his own business without me having to include my restaurant employees as part of his SEP?

While I am at it, is there any way I could have a SEP without having to cover my employees.  The restaurant business is so hit and miss as it relates to employees...ugh.  But, do I even have any options as to what I can do?  I am assuming I can always do a regular IRA, but would like to try to do something more.  But, if my husband could at least have a SEP (or 401(k)...but I don't think it is possible unless my employees are covered).

Any and all comments are appreciated.  Thanks.

My helmet is on too tight.  An active participant has a $100,000 balance in the plan.  $25,000 is in voluntary after-tax with $20,000 basis.  The rest of the money is pre-tax.  Based on the plan document and regulations, the participant is only eligible to take a distribution from the voluntary after-tax source.  Can the participant rollover the $25,000 to an IRA(s) with a basis of $20,000 based on this...

Can I roll over just the after-tax amounts in my retirement plan to a Roth IRA and leave the remainder in the plan?

No, you can’t take a distribution of only the after-tax amounts and leave the rest in the plan. Any partial distribution from the plan must include some of the pretax amounts. Notice 2014-54 doesn’t change the requirement that each plan distribution must include a proportional share of the pretax and after-tax amounts in the account. To roll over all of your after-tax contributions to a Roth IRA, you could take a full distribution (all pretax and after-tax amounts), and directly roll over:

• pretax amounts to a traditional IRA or another eligible retirement plan, and
• after-tax amounts to a Roth IRA.