"[A] foreign-based corporation (or group of individuals) may have wholly owned subsidiaries in other countries that in turn have wholly owned subsidiaries in the U.S., which are in fact part of a controlled group. Most often, these U.S. controlled groups do not have centralized operations and are not even aware that there are other related entities in the U.S. ... Less familiar to many service-type companies are the rules treating affiliated service organizations as a single employer for retirement and cafeteria plan purposes. The ownership thresholds triggering application of these rules are much lower for this type of group than for controlled groups."  MORE >>