Just want to see if I'm off base here.

Suppose you have a plan for a business, say a construction company or something like that, that is subject to Davis Bacon for certain projects. So, they elect to satisfy Davis Bacon obligations, or part of them anyway, by making contributions to their PS plan - let's assume for these purposes that plan permits, or is amended to permit this.

For compensation testing, am I correct that there is no special dispensation/exclusion for 414(s) purposes for Davis Bacon wages, so that you couldn't exclude Davis Bacon wages without passing compensation testing? So for elective deferral purposes, you couldn't exclude the Davis Bacon wages without passing compensation testing?

This applies to other coverage/nondiscrimination testing as well, right - no special exclusions?

However, the Davis Bacon contributions can offset other employer contributions, such as PS, Safe Harbor, Gateway, etc. I believe.

We are preparing a VCP submission along with a EGTRRA document restatement for a plan that didn't restate for EGTRRA. What effective date do we use for the restatement? A date in the restatement period or something like 1/1/15?

Rev. Rul. 69-277 says it's okay to distribute voluntary after-tax contributions from a qualified plan at any time. This still appears to be good law, as it is cited as recently as in Notice 2004-12.

How does this interplay with IRS Notice 2014-54? If a plan has both pre-tax and after-tax amounts in it, can a participant withdraw just the voluntary after-tax contributions? Or does 2014-54 require that any distribution (even if no "distributable event," meaning they are still employed, not over 59-1/2, etc.) be a pro rata mix of pre-tax and after-tax?

I keep thinking there must be some way to withdraw just the voluntary after-tax, otherwise 69-277 is useless, but can't figure it out. Does it hinge on a "distributable event" issue?

Any help would be appreciated!

Client has a single employee profit sharing plan. The plan invested in some houses in CA, and sold them at a profit.

Is that subject to UBT?

The escrow firm in the transaction made a mistake on the 1099 for the gain, and it triggered an audit. Now CA wants to tax them on the gain, and is not accepting that the gain is in a qualified plan.

Anybody ever heard of this?

Can a participant in a fiscal year 401k plan have deferrals within a fiscal year that exceed the 402g limit?

Plan Year: 7/1/2014 - 6/30/2015

Plan permits special election for bonus pay

Participant is age 50+

Compensation exceeds $100k + bonus

Deferrals 7/1-12/31/2014 $6,000

Proposed Deferrals + Catch-Up to be deposited 1/1-6/30/2015 PYE $24,000

Can a participant have permitted deferrals + catch-up totaling $30,000 for the Plan Year 7/1/2014 - 6/30/2015 given the above fact pattern?

Assuming, yes, it is understood this participant would NOT be able to defer any further for the remainder of calendar 2015.Would restart Deferrals in 2016...

Thank you

An employer sponsors a stand alone HRA and one participant is enrolled in an HSA through her spouse's employer. The participant had previously only used the HRA to pay the health insurance premiums on the HDHP. Now, the spouse's employer will be paying these premiums and she wants to start using her HRA for other expenses such as prescriptions and non-preventative medical care. If she stops her contributions to the HSA, would she be able to begin using the HRA for any purpose immediately (it is a General Purpose HRA) or would she have to wait until the calendar year in which she had no contributions to the HSA? Also, if she still has balance in the HSA at the time she ceases her HSA contributions, does that have any impact on her availability to use the HRA for any purpose? Note that the HRA plan is run on an off calendar plan year.

Thank you!

This Plan has many participants, each of whom has their own FBO account at a brokerage firm. This plan is considered 404© and a Participant "T" was allowed to invest in shares of a partnership in 2010, using his own balance of course.

Many things have been squirrely with this transaction. For example, when purchased, the shares were titled in "T"s personal name and it took 4 years to get changed. Also, K-1's have just been obtained for all the years, and it took pulling teeth to obtain them. The icing on the crappy cake is that it has come to light that the Partnership owns a bank where T's wife was an officer.

May the Trustee of this Plan "revoke", "recall", or otherwise force the sale of this investment (partnership shares) at this point? I have a feeling there is a Party In Interest here, but I can't decide b/c the PII is not related to the Trustee/Fiduciary of the Plan; she is only related to T.

My client, the Trustee, is highly agitated and understands that he should have done more research on the front end, but what can he do NOW?

Thanks for any and all advice. I've been reading legal-eze until I'm almost nauseated, but I think I'm overlooking something really obvious. Thanks.

Let's say a participant dies and has no beneficiary form. According to our documents, the death benefits should go to the surviving spouse. However, let's say the surviving spouse chooses to distribute the funds into the deceased participant's trust instead of distributing the funds to himself. Is that allowed? Can a beneficiary elect to have the distribution made out to someone else other than himself, including a trust of the deceased participant?

We have a terminating DB Plan with several current Retirees. We have shopped extensively for an annuity provider that would cover all Retirees but are running into a "snag". The insurance companies are willing to quote on six Retirees but none will quote on the seventh. This Retiree was born in 1929 and they say he is just to old to quote with the size of our group as a whole.

Has anyone had this problem. We have corresponded with the PBGC but they just give us the names of a few more insurance companies to try and then mentioned that we could call our State Insurance Dept.

Any suggestions!

Dr. Smith sponsored a calendar-year plan for a few years. As of 07/01/14, Dr. Smith formed a new corp with Dr. Jones. Dr. Smith's document was amended to state that Smith & Jones, Inc. would assume sponsorship of the plan as of 07/01/14. Smith & Jones will file a 5500 for 2014.

Does Dr. Smith's old corp also have to file a final 5500 for a short plan year: 01/01/14 to 07/01/14?

Any cites are appreciated.

I use the term owner-only for the many marketing terms (individual 401k, solo 401k, etc...)

They are limited to owners and their spouses, with exclusions < one year of service or < 1000 hours.

This is my understanding.

These are essentially 401k plans subject to all the general rules. They are really marketing/administrative creations that can be offered with no or minimal administrative costs, because there is no anti-discrimination testing required and lower compliance costs.

The primary reason for this is that the owners and their spouses are all considered HCEs by virtue of > 5% ownership and attribution rules for the spouse. No non-HCEs no testing required.

So my question is this. Why does this not also extend to others under the attribution rules (children, parents, grandparents)? They would also be considered > 5% owners.

Not only did I jump the gun on Towel Day,

I forgot to wish everyone a happy Star Wars Day yesterday. Sorry.

So, a belated ...

"May the 4th" (be with you).

When using the Fire system, at what point in transmitting a Form 8955-SSA has the deadline been met? When the status is "Good, not released", is that considered a filing that met the due date? Or is it ten days later, when the file is released?

There are 6 requirements a 50-99 mid-size employer must meet in order to qualify for ACA transition relief, including not changing its plan year to begin at a later date after 2/9/14.

If the employer meets all 6 requirements penalty exposure is delayed a year until the end of the plan year that begins in 2015 (for example, a plan that renews 7/1/2015 would not be subject to penalty until 7/1/2016).

The question is what the consequences are if an employer meets the other 5 requirements but changes it's plan year in 2015 (say for example from a 7/1 renewal to a 10/1 renewal).

Some commentators contend that the transition relief is blown entirely and the employer is subject to penalty exposure retroactively as of 1/1/2015.

Others contend that the relief is still granted for 2015 but penalty exposure begins 1/1/2016 and only the remaining months in the 2015-2016 plan year are "lost".

Any opinions on this sticky issue welcome.

I can't get past page 1 of this topic:

http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php/topic/27329-fas-87-discount-rates-and-moodys-rates/

I can get the latest information on page 6 by clicking on Reply to this topic, but the "page" buttons return me to page 1.

And the View New Content page doesn't think I've viewed it.

If it's only me, I can live with it.

I was recently asked for a copy of the 1971 TPF&C table. I have inherited a spreadsheet that contains something with that label, although I cannot verify.

Anyone able to verify the attached?

TPF&C 1971 MortalityTable.xlsx

NRA is 55, participant is 57 and still working. Plan allows in-service withdrawals at NRA.

Plan is a 401(k) and participant wants in-service of deferrals/QNEC/QMAC/Safe Harbor accounts.

Participant is insisting he can take the in-service, and I maintain he cannot because he is not 59 1/2. Who is correct?

Of course it is the owner and he is being adamant.

NRA is 55, working participant is age 57, plan provides for in-service withdrawal at NRA.

Participant wants to have his 401(k)/QNEC/QMAC/Safe harbor accounts distributed, and I say NO because he is under 59 1/2 and still employed. Does the participant win or do I win?

Of course this is the owner and he is being forceful.

Medical plan entry is first of month following 30 days after hire (so day 31 at earliest).

When does the employee have to turn in an election form by? 30 days after hire or some other date based on plan eligibility date?

Does your answer change if the plan entry is, say 60 days after hire?

I have a situation where a client wants to categorically exclude interns from participation in a 401(k) plan. Before posting this, I came across a thread between 2010 to 2011 on the subject and whether suh an exclusion could be viewed as a violation of Code Section 410(a) as imposing an indirect service requirement. I am not completely confident that this could completely avoid the issue but could an employer adapt language used to exclude independent contractors from the plan to interns? Namely, any individual who is classified by the employer as an intern and has entered into a written agreement with the employer providing that such individual is excluded from the employer's employee benefit plans? r