Bill Presson

If all the benefits are part of the cafeteria plan, we consider that the wrap document though I know some others don't agree.

You are correct that there is no filing requirement for the cafeteria plan. However, we often will file a 5500 for the plan to include all the underlying welfare benefits so we can have a single 5500 rather than multiple 5500's.

Not sure how you would offer an FSA outside of a 125 plan, so your question confuses me.

TPApril, in my mind, if you are having to ask this, it's likely time to find a new provider. Use one that will provide benefit cards for the medical fsa accounts and reimburse the dependent care no more than a week after payroll. Now that's assuming the employer is causing the difficulty by not making the funds available.

Frankly it would be nice if someone required the brokerage account providers to actually revamp their software and make them play nice instead of always requiring the Relius/Omni/SRT/ASC/Datair crowd to do so.

Each plan stands on it's own for audit purposes. Here's group that did a good job in explaining the process: http://www.benefit-resources.com/blog/bid/123203/Avoiding-a-Plan-Audit-and-cutting-costs

Not true. If I feel that I need to save 7% of my income in order to fund my retirement, I may think about lessening my deferral if I knew that the company was giving me 3% at the get-go. Okay, I'll grant that (though the 7% should be higher ). What I really meant is that the deferral would not cause any change in the amount of the employer contribution.

Agree. I'm also not as worried about the 30 day notice when it's safe harbor nonelective because that part has 0 impact on their decision to defer.

I downloaded the two most recent sample tests and studied those. My biggest fear was that I shouldn't even have to study since I've been in this business for 30 years! But the tests allowed me to review some things I don't deal with every day. I took the first one on a Friday and the second the following Monday. I was definitely glad to get it over.

I've never had to get a PoA to talk with the DOL. But I've never had any IRS representative tell me anything about a client without one. They don't mind us talking to them, but won't return the favor. That's the only reason I decided to get my ERPA last year. I've used it once this year and was very useful in not having to get someone else to sit in the room on my behalf. As to whether is makes sense for you has to be your own decision.

So you want legislation to see consumers are not misled and then say consumers do not read the fine print. While I'm opposed to legislation, it would be interesting to see legislation that required consumers to read the fine print and retain proof that they had done so.

Also, make sure they aren't including the deferrals in the deduction calculation. I still see this occasionally.

You can find all of them here: http://www.irs.gov/irm/part25/irm_25-006-001r.html

This was fun! Stumbled across while looking for something else.

Always ask for the other person to provide a cite in support of their position.

Most people I rely on to help me interpret these kinds of things felt it eliminated all individual coverage through a cafeteria plan. http://www.groom.com/media/publication/1304_Individual_Health_Policies.pdf

I know I read the Technical Release 2013-03 last fall as eliminating that option.

Just so everyone knows, this isn't the CPA firm I work for.

I assume not everyone is terminated, especially the owner. If you 'allocate' a match to the owner alone, you would fail 410(b) and could do an -11(g). But I don't think a failure is even required, so I don't have an issue with an -11(g) amendment.

Pretty sure it depends on who the beneficiary of the trust is.

We work with a ton of medical practices. The standard for almost all of them is to hire as of July 1, even when the doctor shows up in the office a bit later. That's because June 30 is almost always the date the residencies or fellowships are dated to end. Not sure that's the case here, but I'm betting it is. If his employment contract says July 1 is his hire date, then that's his hire date.

If he really wants to push the issue, I would have the employer run a special payroll in December 2013 and make the necessary corrections. The deferrals that are in the plan, I would forfeit and use them for future employer contributions. I wouldn't take the money back out of the plan. But it's hard to believe he's really that upset if he let several payrolls go by.

What is the real risk if the IRS or DOL question it? I'm not in favor of filing incorrect 5500s, but it it's not material, I would likely look at letting it lie.

Yes.

We had a plan once that fell below 100... but the sponsor actually wanted the plan audit, since it was "independent" and gave him some comfort that someone else was looking at the plan... even with the cost involved. We had that once as well. We still filed as a small plan, but the sponsor paid for the audit and just kept it in the desk. After 3 years of paying for an audit that wasn't required, we convinced them to save the money.