Small union construction company. Owner pays union dues for himself as well.

Can owner have a plan sponsored by his company, exclude other union men but include himself, possibly for a big DB or CB plan?

How does everyone generally handle someone who is out on early retirement who returns to work? The person had a 1 year break in service before returning to work 1/4 in '14 and 1/4 in '15 before retirning again.

Is there an IRS regulation that freezes the early retirement benefit from the first time employed, with a new reduction for the new accrued benefit?

Or do people generally recalculate the previous benefit, based on the additional time worked, since there was only a 1 year break?

for the record, FT Williams form 5500 now carries the message:

IRS Compliance Questions are no longer required and will not be submitted.

A 401(k) plan has been approaching the 60% top heavy ratio for a few plan years. The current Key Employees, the owners and one long time Officer, have agreed not to defer until the top heavy test is completed each year, to avoid having to make a top heavy minimum.

For 2016 the ratio exceeds 60% for the first time. The Keys stopped deferring after 12/31/2015 and have decided among themselves not to defer in 2016.

The company is hiring an employee in 2016 whose job functions will classify the new employee as an Officer and the new employee will be eligible to defer in 2016. His compensation will exceed $170,000 in 2016, and no Officers are excluded under the 10% rule.

Question is, for 2016, although the new employee will most likely meet the Key Employee definition on the 12/31/2016 determination date for determining the 2017 Key Employees, am I correct that this employee IS NOT a Key Employee for the 2016 plan year, and would not trigger a top heavy required contribution if he defers in 2016?

Thank you.

My understanding is that if a person has 5 IRA's and he rolls over the funds from one IRA to his other 4 IRA's this doesn't violate the one IRA rollover per year rule. Is that correct?

Any responses would be appreciated!

Owner has high-3-year established average comp of $250,000. Cash balance plan was established for 2015, with the owner slated to receive a flat $100,000 each year (with no percentage of pay mentioned). But 2015 census comes back with owner showing $0 pay. Can he still receive the $100,000 thanks to his prior comp (similar to a traditional DB)? Or is a CB allocation limited to current comp, regardless of the benefit formula in the document?

Can I limit Catch-up Eligible HCE's? So all HCE's eligible for catch-ups are limited to 5% of pay plus catch-ups?

Or would that be age discrimination since your limiting people who are over age 50 exclusively?

Hi Everyone,

Participant first distribution calendar year was 2015 and wanted the distribution to take place at the end of December for tax purposes. Because of improper information and service provider error, the participant requested the distribution in December and it was processed in January. Although this is permissible because it is before April 1, the participant would like for that distribution to be 2015 income.

Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? I'm leaning towards there being no remedy but wanted other opinions.

Thanks!

I'm looking for any discussion of whether a retirement plan in a foreign country (not an ERISA plan) can be treated as one-in-the-same as its sponsor -- under our rules (ERISA)?

PS Grouping method:

Owners in own group.

All others in a single group.

4 owners at 25%.

Son of one of the owners is a participant.

Is he in his own group? Or with all others?

This may be a little too general of a question, but I got handed a DB Plan that was frozen 1/1/15 and don't have much experience with them. Basically, they froze the benefits as of 1/1/15 and already had a $60,000 credit balance on the Schedule B (after using a portion of it to lower the required contribution in '14).

They are now asking me what, if any, is the required contribution for '15.

Is there an easy way to calculate this or is the question too abstract?

Thanks in advance for any help/guidance!

For a MEWA, we need to issue the 1095-B's but are having issues getting all of the EIN #'s for the smaller employers. Has anyone else had this problem? What resolution did you use?

Thanks in advance!

Defined benefit plan. Participant has 9 years of vesting service. Plan has 5 year cliff vesting.

Participant is unmarried and dies without having ever listed a beneficiary with the Plan. He does have several children, though. But, again, never filled out a form naming any of them as a beneficiary.

Plan administrator is saying no benefits are payable.

Is that correct?

If not, to whom should benefits be paid? And when? And in what amount?

Assume the Plan document is silent.

Thanks.

How do you count hours for eligibility for a plan for a professional who only records billable hours (e.g., an attorney in a law firm)?

Actual hours worked are generally more than billable hours. But certain types of professional services firms generally do not even collect information on the non-billable hours. And although the billable hours might be said to be what the employee is paid for, the employee's pay is not so directly tied to hours that it would be adjusted up or down specifically for differences between actual billable hours and the required ones.

Are equivalencies generally used? Or do you just use the elapsed time method?

The situation is that the employee was laid off as of June 1st 2015. The company agreed to continue to subsidize his health insurance payments for 1 year. Him and his wife were moved to Cobra at that time. The monthly rate after the company subsidy is $400 a month. When the subsidies end June 1st of 2016 the rate jumps to $1100 a month.

Are there any options for him and his spouse or just his spouse to jump off of Cobra and join another plan mid-year?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Company X has historically paid those of its employees who went out on short-term disability a percentage of their salary during the period of disability out of its payroll, and it deducted 401(k) contributions and included the benefits received in the employee's compensation. Company X has decided to provide short-term disability on an insured basis or a self-insured basis administered by an insurer. Employees on short-term disability receive payments from the insurer and the insurer issues a Form 1099 to reflect the amount of benefits that were taxable (all of them since it is provided on a noncontributory basis). Is there any way that 401(k) contributions can be deducted from these amounts, albeit in arrears and not violate the requirement that deferrals have to be made from prospectively received compensation?lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

I will preface this post with stating I know very little about church plans and how they operate - however, I've received a question and hope someone out there can help.

One of our advisors is trying to set up a church plan and was asked - if the pastors are receiving contributions in this plan, does it cause any issue with the "tax-free" status of their housing allowance?

Thanks, in advance, for any guidance!

We have one participant who received a QNEC in 2015 because the company incorrectly believed he never enrolled. However, he has submitted enrollment paper work to them a couple of years ago and was attributable to receive the amount he chose to defer. Now, the QNECs have been funded on his behalf to compensate him for missed deferrals.

I have a couple of questions:

1) Should these QNECs be counted in the ADP/ACP tests or should they be ignored?

2) Since the participant missed deferrals for a couple of years and received the QNEC in 2015, should that QNEC be counted as received in 2015 (and tested only in 2015), or be considered individually for the years in which the failure took place (and be counted for testing in those years)?

Thanks for your help.

But the groups are operationally defined as follows:
People with More than 10 YOS get 10%
People with More than 5 YOS get 5%
People with Less Than 5 YOS get 0%

Please tell me the consensus is that this violates ERISA. Prior TPA said "No, it's ok because everyone is in their own group."

Defined Benefit pension plan permits Lump Sum benefit upon retirement (Normal or Early at Age 55). Participant just turned 55, wants to "retire" and take his large Lump Sum payment, and return to covered employment immediately after. He has expressed to the plan administrator and his employer that he has no intention of retiring, but wants to take his lump sump payment now.

The Plan defines Retirement as follows:

Retirement - The term "Retirement" shall mean termination of employment for reasons other than by death after a Participant has fulfilled all of the requirements for entitlement to a Normal, Early, Normal at Age Sixty (60), Normal at Age Fifty-Five (55), or Disability Retirement Pension. Retirement shall be considered as commencing on the day immediately following a Participant's last day of employment, as determined in the sole and absolute discretion of the Trustees.

Thoughts on whether this is permissible?