Harwood

The statutory non-resident alien exclusion only applies for those with no U.S. source income. Surely the visa employees have U.S. income

http://www.irs.gov/retirement/article/0,,id=110106,00.html

Of marginal usefulness for your question: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/Newsroom/fsbankruptcy.html

1. The additional tax for early distributions is 10%, not 20% 2. The additional tax does not apply to distributions from plans where you worked and terminated at age 55 and up. IRC 72(t)(2)(A)(iv). So the disability issue [72(t)(2)(A)(iii) doesn't even have to be explored for this person. 3. The distribution is taxable income and rollover-eligible, so 20% withholding applies if not rolled over.

Lawrence: where did you find this information?

Form 945 Instructions: "Deposit all nonpayroll (Form 945) Federal income tax withholding, including backup withholding, using Form 8109, Federal Tax Deposit Coupon, at an authorized financial institution, unless you are required to use the EFTPS electronic deposit system" Due to the relatively small amounts involved, you appear to be "monthly schedule depositor" [Form 945 Instructions, page 2]. Payments are made by the 8109 coupon, not electronically. "Under the monthly deposit schedule, deposit Form 941 taxes on payments made during a month by the 15th day of the following month." [Publication 15; same rule applies to 945 taxes]

From Publication 590: Eligible educational institution. This is any college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary educational institution eligible to participate in the student aid programs administered by the Department of Education. It includes virtually all accredited, public, nonprofit, and proprietary (privately owned profit-making) postsecondary institutions. The educational institution should be able to tell you if it is an eligible educational institution.

From Rev Proc 2003-44, Appendix B (3) Inclusion of Ineligible Employee Failure. (a) Plan Amendment Correction Method. The Operational Failure of including an ineligible employee in the plan who either (i) has not completed the plan's minimum age or service requirements, or (ii) has completed the plan's minimum age or service requirements but became a participant in the plan on a date earlier than the applicable plan entry date, may be corrected under VCP and SCP by using the plan amendment correction method set forth in this paragraph. The plan is amended retroactively to change the eligibility or entry date provisions to provide for the inclusion of the ineligible employee to reflect the plan's actual operations. The amendment may change the eligibility or entry date provisions with respect to only those ineligible employees that were wrongly included, and only to those ineligible employees, provided (i) the amendment satisfies § 401(a) at the time it is adopted, (ii) the amendment would have satisfied § 401(a) had the amendment been adopted at the earlier time when it is effective, and (iii) the employees affected by the amendment are predominantly nonhighly compensated employees.

The DoL letters surprise me. "If participant contributions are delinquent, plan officials must take appropriate action to correct the violation. Although plan officials are not required to file an application with the Department under the VFCP to correct a violation, the VFCP is available to correct a loss of any amount resulting from a transaction covered by the program. Participation in the VFCP is voluntary. However, if you do not file an application with the Department, you cannot obtain the relief available under the program." http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_VFCP.html

After-tax money distribution can satisify RMD for a 401(k) plan.

Form 1099-R instructions seem to say no [and now refer to PS-58 as "cost of current life insurance protection"]

This has a bit, including some links at the end: http://www.401khelpcenter.com/benchmarking.html

Do you consider the value of Group Term Life Insurance in excess of $50,000 to be a "fringe benefit [cash and non-cash]" or "welfare benefit" for purposes of compensation exclusions under 1.414(s)-1©(3)

Form 5500 no longer asks the name of the bonding company, only the bond amount. If the Plan Sponsor is responsible for signing the 5500 and certifying its accuracy, is it necessary for you to see the bond?

Signatures of the parties are not required, only the court's.

§ 1.411(a)-11 Restriction and valuation of distributions. © Consent, etc. requirements. (4) Immediately distributable. Participant consent is required for any distribution while it is immediately distributable, i.e., prior to the later of the time a participant has attained normal retirement age (as defined in section 411(a)(8)) or age 62. Once a distribution is no longer immediately distributable, a plan may distribute the benefit in the form of a QJSA in a case of a benefit subject to section 417 or in the normal form in other cases without consent.

I am positive that Reish never received a response from the DOL

6057(e) is referring to a statement of benefits that must be given to terminated employees. From the 5500 Instructions for line 7i comes this: "CAUTION! Code section 6057(e) provides that the plan administrator must give each participant a statement showing the same information reported on Schedule SSA for that participant."

We take the attitude that a blanket power-of-attorney is not sufficient. We only honor a power-of-attorney that specifically cites that actions may be taken in an ERISA qualified plan - such as beneficiary changes and consenting to distributions. We could be wrong.

http://www.reish.com/practice_areas/EmpBen...irsguidance.cfm

The monthly Principia diskette from Morningstar has this information. I'm not sure how much my company pays for it. Phone: 800-735-0700 MorningstarAdvisor.com Large Cap Growth 1.56 Small Value 1.55

All Publication 590 has is a warning against traditional IRAs investing in most collectibles. http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590.pdf

You may not have to actually roll the money back in from the IRA, however, the IRA needs to be informed that it got some dollars that were not eligible for rollover. IRA trustee should know what to do with those dollars. From the 1099-R instructions: Corrected Form 1099-R: f you transmit a direct rollover and file a Form 1099-R with the IRS reporting that none of the direct rollover is taxable by entering 0 (zero) in box 2a, and you then discover that part of the direct rollover consists of required minimum distributions under section 401(a)(9), you must file a corrected Form 1099-R. If IRA has no money at 12/31/02, then no RMD required during 2003 from the IRA.

Our prototype allows only "Affiliated Employers" to adopt the plan as Participating Employers. "Affiliated Employers" must be part of a controlled group or under common control or affiliated service group [the section 414 groupings]. It is my understanding that all prototypes have the same requirement and that having unrelated employers adopting the plan takes it out of prototype. Check the definitions in your plan document.

My rule of thumb is: whoever has the assets at December 31 is responsible for the RMD during the following year. I think the above holds true for virtually all situations Also: first dollars distributed during the year are considered to be RMD dollars, so were the monthly payments treated as such? Person can't roll over entire MPP balance to an IRA until the RMD for the year has been met.