May we amend and restate a safe harbor plan effective mid-year into the new PPA document? Or since it's SH, does that keep us from making it affective mid-year?

What is the max DCAP contribution for two employees that have a child, live together, not DP, the mom claims the child on taxes. I only find on separated/divorced parents. Thank you!!

Got a participant pushing hard about how he should be able to use a hardship distribution to pay him back for a pool liner that was damaged in a storm. I say no because the pool is not part of the "principal residence", and when I went to prove my point by looking up that definition I found it was not defined. So perhaps one persons definition of residence might include the pool (as distinguished from say a car which can be moved away).

Let me know if you have any light to shed. It certainly seems that there is room for a casualty loss deduction under 165 for the pool liner - but there does not appear to be a requirement under 165 that he principal residence be the property that is damaged.

Self-insured plan is looking for someone to "audit" their large claims, anyone know of a company that specializes in this type of work?

Key employee takes a loan from the unrelated rollover source. Does that loan now count in the top-heavy determination or is still excliduible. I would think it is still excludible, but can;t find anywhere it deifnitively says that.

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

For example, a calendar year plan is tested as of its 12/31/2013 determination date, and is determined to be top heavy. Which year's Non-key Employee compensations are used for calculation of the top heavy minimum contribution...2013's or 2014's?

Thanks

I am inquiring about a possible contribution problem with a 403(b) tax-deferred annuity plan that is exclusively employee-funded. The sponsoring employer has employees who have multiple "jobs"--you might be half-time in Department A and half-time in Department B and therefore be a full-time employee, but the accounting is separate by job. The employer-funded plan calculates its contributions based on the eligible compensation of all the participants' jobs. But due to a programming error the employer withheld percentage salary deferral elections based on only one job--usually but not always the one with the most pay. (People who elected a specific dollar amount per paycheck are not affected, just the nes who said they want X% of pay withheld.) This has been going on for several years. When the participant signs on to the employer's benefits web site and starts to enroll the site tells him the estimated dollar amount of the deferral so the participant knows ahread of time what the amount will be, but no one has questioned the deferral amounts. It was discovered by the employer during a routine plan review.

The definition of compensation does not provide for consideration of only one job. There is also the question of whether the participants are given an effective opportunity to defer, especially for the small number of people whose job on the system was the lower-paid one.

Systems changes are in process to correct the problem for the future, but they are wondering what needs to be retroactively, IF ANYTHING. Needless to say, the employer is not really pleased at the thought of doing a retroactive contribution, which would including having to track down terminated participants who have already received their distributions. My belief is that the participants knew the effect of what they were electing based on seeing it on the web site during the enrollment process and they could have "corrected" their deferral election before hitting "submit" if they wanted a higher dollar amount withheld. Is there any wiggle room for the employer here?

I was recently asked by an attorney to calculate probability of a person aged 57 dying before another person age 70. Pulling out my old (very old) copy of Life Contingencies by Jordon, I found the formula for the "q" that I needed.It looks like this:

1

(infinity sign) q

57:70

I don't have any software to calculate this value directly. I can develop it from scratch using an Excel spreadsheet, but, that would take me hours. Any suggestions?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Rick

Financial advisor office receives the contribution spreadsheet, misses it, and catches it 8 days after small business' last payroll, resulting in late deferral. Advisor firm wants to take responsibility of the small lost earnings amount. To what extent can they actualy make deposit on behalf of the company, or can the source of the lost earnings be the advisor firm. Or am I being too nitpicky?

Calendar year 401(k) plan.

If the plan terminates mid year, say 7/31 with the intention of getting assets distributed by 12/31 how is the ADP testing done in the final year?

Is the comp limit 7/12th of the 401(a)(17) limit?

What happens if the final distribution of assest is say 10/31? Would that change the proration to 10/12th?

Does this mean you can't do the ADP test before earlier of 12/31 or all asstes distributed?

If participants rolls to and IRA and later it is determined the plan failed ADP I know the procedures to fix but they can be something of a pain for both TPA and partcipant so we'd rather do refunds before hand if there are any but how can you caculate a proper ADP if you're not sure what the denominator is going to be for some HCEs?

Assume they are not running a short PYE for the year of termination.

Does this make sense?

I searched for some other threads on this but didn't find anything on point back to 2009 but maybe I missed it.

Can a defined benefit plan permit existing participants to elect on an individual basis to cease participation in exchange for eligibility in a defined contribution plan? My gut says no, but I've not been able to find anything that would prohibit this. Note that I'm not talking about waiving any benefit which has already accrued.

I've seen this in the governmental plan context, but I'm curious if it translates into a standard qualified plan subject to ERISA.

Thoughts?

Does anyone have any insight on paying too much out to an employee as far as the employer match goes?

For instance, when we verified hours of service with a company that we just took over, we were informed of 5 years of service with over 1000 hours, indicating in this plan that the employee would be 80% vested. However, when needing to dig down for actual hours during an audit, we were informed that the employee should have only had 4 years of service, indicating 60% vested. The dollar amount difference is only $50 between the 80% and 60%. I could see an issue if it was the other way around where the participant got shorted. But in this case, the employer paid out too much so it really only affects the employer, not the participant. Does anyone have any thoughts or documentation on how 'severe' this over-vesting payout really is?

I have a client that has a number of employees with unused vacation. They questioned whether or not this unused vacation could be deferred into the 401(k) Plan. They want to get this obligation off their books and thought perhaps they could avoid payroll taxes with this option.

Their plan does not currently permit this type of contribution.

Has anyone had experience with this?

Would it be considered an employee contribution and require employer match? Or would it be a QNEC?

Any insight would be appreciated!

Thanks

My TPA is telling me that the spouse of an employee, who is also an employee, cannot participate in our company sponsored HRA. Our company offers a HRA to employees who "opt out" of health coverage and provide proof of alternative coverage (non-market place). Two employees, husband and wife, work for same company. Husband elects family coverage, wife opts-out and is enrolled in HRA. My understanding is that each employee has an individual right to make an election, what am I missing? Furthermore, there seems to be a disconnect as to whether or not our HRA is considered integrated. Who sponsors the group coverage is not a factor, simply that the employee enrolled in the HRA is actually enrolled in other group coverage. What am I missing here?

Section 3121 defines "qualified church-controlled organization" as meaning any "church-controlled tax-exempt organization" described in Section 501©(3).....

So the word "controlled" is in both the definition and the term to be defined.

What constitutes control?

Is "church-controlled tax-exempt organization" defined anywhere?

in conjunction with the reports I posted a few years ago to import ssa data into FT William

these are my 'double check' of the data

A D will print next to someone who has been paid and terminated over 2 years ago on the distribution report

An A will print on terminees who quit last year on the termination report

Might miss people if the dates are 12/31 or maybe 1/1 in a leap year, but they seem to work.

of course, no 100% guarantee

Distributions ssa code.rpt

terminated with ssa code.rpt

client's plan receives a k-1 for investments in an lp and

an llc.

does the schedule i 3a question on partnership

interests include all investments reporting on a k-1

regardless of entity type?

for the schedule i 20% investment question is the

k-1 reported capital interest considered a single security? I

would think yes....

lastly, the fact that the investments are shown on a brokerage statement

is not material as to either the exemption from the audit requirement

or the ability to do a 5500sf filing....correct??

A company let a participant borrow $ and now the participant left the company. The participant is willing to sign over part of their 401k back to the company. For example they would take a distribution that was taxable to them, but make the Company the Payee. If there is signature guaranteed distribution request - is this ok? Any guidance would be appreciated.

Hello. I have a plan participant who is undergoing treatment for cancer and wants to give her husband authority to sign off on any distributions they may need from her 401k if she because unable to sign. From what my document provider states, they can use a power of attorney. Anything else I should be concerned with?

Husband and wife have two separate businesses, each has a pension plan, we are the TPA for both.

I had suggested a QDRO years ago, neither party went with the idea. Probably neither wanted to pay or the attorneys talked them out of it.

Five years later the divorce is final and the wife is to get $x as part of the divorce decree and wants to roll it into her plan.

Absent a DRO, I believe the full amount is taxable to herald she can not roll it into her plan???