One of my clients sent me employees compensation information directly exported from their payroll system.

A week later I have received W-2s for all employees, including W-3 (Summary of W2 Data Totals for Company).

Most employees’ compensation from the payroll system was higher than the W-2 box 5 compensation.

Majority of affected employees’ W-2 box 12a shows some amount with code DD (cost of employer sponsored health coverage). These employees’ compensation from the payroll system equals the sum of the W-2s box 5 and box 12a code DD.

For some other employees, I needed to add W-2s box 14 code GAP, box 5 and box 12a code DD to get to the compensation from the payroll system.

Compensation definition in the plan is 3401(a). I suppose I needed to increase the compensation by elective deferrals under IRC 402(g)(3), IRC 125, IRC 457 and IRC 132(f)(4).

Does this mean the compensation for retirement plan purposes has to be the sum of W-2 box 5, box 12a code DD and box 14 code GAP (or in short the compensation from their payroll system)?

Help please (if possible examples and explanation from the code or the regulation).

Owner A and Owner B both sponsor a 401k plan together for their employees.  There is no common ownership but there is overlap in operations for admin, financial reporting, payroll processing, etc.  As it happens, Owner B is an executive with Owner A (Owner A is a very large operation, and Owner B's is much smaller, so owner B has a very significant role in the operations of Owner A's business.    Owner B makes 401k contributions from the co-sponsored plan of $18,000 with respect to his compensation received from Owner A's company.

Can Owner B set up  a profit sharing plan and get $53,000 of proifit sharing too (testing passes taking into account all of B's employees, and that;s not really the question anyway).  The profit sharing plan is NOT a multiple employer plan - only Owner B's company establishes/maintains the Plan.

HEre is the regulation from 415(a)-1:

e) Rules for plans maintained by more than one employer. Except as provided in §1.415(f)-1(g)(2)(i) (regarding aggregation of multiemployer plans with plans other than multiemployer plans), for purposes of applying the limitations of section 415 with respect to a participant in a plan maintained by more than one employer, benefits and contributions attributable to such participant from all of the employers maintaining the plan must be taken into account. Furthermore, in applying the limitations of section 415 with respect to a participant in such a plan, the total compensation received by the participant from all of the employers maintaining the plan is taken into account under the plan, unless the plan specifies otherwise.

Plan's QDRO procedures stipulate that once a QDRO has been certified, there is a 60 day period in which either party may appeal (although I'm not sure if there are limits on WHAT they can appeal). The question is whether the participant or the AP should have investment control of the AP's interest during this time, knowing that there is some chance that the participant could appeal the QDRO in some fashion and the amount payable to the AP could be reduced or eliminated. Thoughts?

A participant has an outstanding loan. Loan payments are paid via payroll deduction. Can the participant request loan payments to stop and then restart down the road (assuming they catch back up, down extend beyond  the term of the loan, etc.)?

New client to us.  Tells us company is a 51/49% partnership with wife/husband.  We received draft K-1s for both.  K-1 for wife has a dollar amount on line 14a.  K-1 for husband (whose K-1 lists him as a limited partner) is showing nothing on line 14a.  Has anyone seen this before?  It is my contention that the husband does not have compensation for retirement plan purposes.  There is nothing on the guaranteed payments line for either partner.

100% owner wants to roll his traditional IRA into his 401(k).  Assuming the plan accepts rollovers from IRAs I don't see why he can't do that, but his CPA is telling him that owners can't roll IRAs into their company's 401(k). 

Am I missing something? 

Thanks for any guidance.

Does anyone have a simple earned income calculation spreadsheet they would be willing to share?  Our old software had a calculator induced but our new one does not.  I was going to sit down and create a spreadsheet calculator for it but it struck me that someone here may have a simple one already.

Thanks

J

Participant and spouse split her account balance in 2016 according to the terms of a QDRO

Plan account is pooled account, upon instructions from the client, since the spouse was rolling over, the brokerage firm wrote the check directly to the financial institution.

I assume the spouse should be issued a 1099, code G with the plan as the payor and the participant's account would show the money coming out of her account.

However, the spouse is not a participant.

Is this cause for concern?

What is the deadline for making a 2016 catchup contribution?

SIMPLE IRA arrangements may use the VCP Procedures. However, some items on the VCP Forms seem inapplicable. For example, an employer with a SIMPLE IRA arrangement does not typically have access to the total Plan assets or the current number of Plan "participants." The employer would know the number of individuals it is currently contributing for and could, perhaps with a lot of work, aggregate all past individuals it contributed for, which still would not necessarily be the same as all current participants.  The instructions do not address exceptions for SIMPLE IRAs for these items. Any thoughts other than to include an attachment saying something along the lines of 'Because this is a SIMPLE IRA arrangement, the employer does not have the amount of plan assets or the number of plan participants." ?
 

We have a client that has an LLC where the employees are paid and each of the three partners have their own s-corp.  The LLC and two partner's have a simple plan.  The other partner wants to have his own 401(k) plan.  Each partner is a 33% owner of the LLC.  Can the one partner have his own 401(k) plan? 

Are employee deferrals included in 415?

Salary 70,000 

defers 18,000

What is max Profit Sharing Contribution?

Many business consultants recommend using personality tests when (or even before) interviewing for positions. Even the TPA consultants recommend this.

Does anyone have any experience with online services that do this and can make some recommendations? A Google search is not as effective as someone who may have gone through this already.

Thank you.

Hi all, I have a question regarding possible ERISA restrictions on payments to a participant in a defined benefit plan. The plan at issue is a single employer, defined benefit plan. The participant, 65 years old, commenced payments under the plan in January 2017. The participant retired from employment with the employer in December 2016. Either then or in January 2017, the employer paid the employee severance pay as well as pay for unused personal/sick days. The employer now wants to bring back the former employee and pension plan participant as a consultant for a few months. The former employee would be under a consulting agreement which provides that they are an independent contractor, working up to 40 hours per week. The amount of compensation is a small, monthly payment. Is there anything in ERISA or the internal revenue code which would limit how much the employer can pay this former employee/pension plan participant, taking into account their severance, payout for unused sick days, and consulting retrainer? Are there any provisions of ERISA (and the IRC) which the employer should pay special attention to?

Hi all you knowledgeable people.

I am the executor and while I realize that my deceased brother's nontraditional 401(k) is not going through probate I still need to help. This is a profit sharing plan sponsored and contributed to by his sub S for his retirement and he is the only employee and sole participant filing a 5500-EZ. He died a few weeks ago prior to his RBD. No spouse. The plan was adopted in 1988 and includes a Beneficiary Designation Form naming his 2 children and checking the box "lump sum payment". Publ. 575 suggests that there are only two options, one of which is taking the distribution within 5 years. Yet I have read elsewhere that a lump sum needs to be taken by December 31st of the year following death. I need to know when to distribute via the 1099-R. If it needs to be a total distribution by the following year what is that Code Section citation please? To me lump sum means lump sum so how could Publ 575 say that there are only two options for non-periodic/total distributions. Do they really take a "lump sum" over 5 years which greatly reduces their tax burden?

Thank you to everyone for the useful and informative information you have provided on these boards. I have learned much more than I expected to when I signed up. And thanks to Dave and Lois.

Today is my last day as an employee (and plan administrator).  I'll be looking in from time to time, because there are some interesting subjects to be discussed and questioned in the coming years, and because so many of the posters on this board provide informed, accurate answers.

Thanks again.

GMK ... out.

We';re starting to go paperless and one tool I can see that I need is some sort of an on-screen ruler to scroll down through a pdf report. I have seen apps out there that do this but was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for one they have used.  I'm leary of installing from some random website for security reasons.

I was recently released from my job; I have been there over 11 years so I was fully vested in the retirement plan.  I will probably have to request a disbursement from my 401k to stay afloat until I find a new job.  My employer informed me that I can on get a disbursement on what I allocated to the plan and that all matching/safe harbor could not be disbursed or rolled over to another plan  for a year.  Is this true? 

Question #1:  Is a participant in a 457(b) top hat plan required to cease deferrals in the 457(b) top hat plan for 6 months after taking an unforeseeable emergency distribution?  The document is silent on this fact so I'm assuming the answer is no.

Question #2:  Client also sponsors a 403(b).  It is my understanding that when a participant takes an unforeseeable emergency distribution from the 457(b) TH, the participant must cease elective deferrals in the 403(b) Plan sponsored by the same employer.  Is this correct?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

this just popped up on MSN

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-to-halt-obama-fiduciary-rule-order-review-of-dodd-frank/ar-AAmzOmM?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp