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5/9: PBGC Simplifies Small Company Reporting for Missed Quarterly Contributions. From the PBGC Web site:
To ease reporting burdens for small companies this year, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is simplifying reporting of missed quarterly pension contributions. Rather than separately reporting each missed payment within 30 days after the payment's due date, affected companies may file one notice covering all missed payments by the deadline for making PBGC premium payments for the 1997 plan year.
About 10,000 small companies that sponsor some 40,000 pension plans are affected. The relief, provided today [5/8/97] in PBGC Technical Update 97-4, applies to small companies with defined benefit plans that, in the prior plan year, either had (a) 100 or fewer participants or (b) 500 or fewer participants and the reporting plan did not have to provide a PBGC participant notice (generally because it was at least 90 percent funded). The relief applies only to missed contributions due on or after January 1, 1997, for the 1996 and 1997 plan years.

5/9: Welcome to new sponsor Aurora Administrative Solutions, Ltd. of Dayton OH! Excerpt:
Aurora Administrative Solutions, Ltd. is a client-focused company committed to providing the highest quality administrative services to the outsourcing marketplace. Our core business is Pension administration, COBRA administration, Direct/Retiree Billing services, and Participant Communications. We specialize in medium to large employers who desire to out source functions currently being performed as miscellaneous duties in either the Human Resources department or the Finance area.

5/8: The following benefits-related item was added to the "Recently Issued Reports" page on the U.S. Government Accounting Office's World Wide Web site (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/newtitle.htm) in Portable Document (PDF) format. (Use the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view it.)
- Federal Retirement: Federal and Private Sector Retirement Program Benefits Vary. GGD-97-40. 67 pp. plus 6 appendices (63 pp.) April 7, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/gg97040.pdf

5/8: 330 people now subscribe to the free benefits-jobs mailing list, which provides them with immediate, anonymous notification of new jobs posted by employers and recruiters on BenefitsLink.

5/8: The potential tax savings arising from a Section 125 plan (also called a cafeteria plan or flex plan) are nicely illustrated in an online calculator provided by Matrix Benefits.

5/8: Longtime BenefitsLink contributor Chris Trapatsos' little amendment and restatement, Connor ... Look, ma, I'm on the Internet!

5/7: The following benefits-related items were added to the "Recently Issued Reports" page on the U.S. Government Accounting Office's World Wide Web site (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/newtitle.htm) in Portable Document (PDF) format. (Use the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view them.)
- Medicare and Medicaid: Meeting Needs of Dual Eligibles Raises Difficult Cost and Care Issues. T-HEHS-97-119. 11 pp. April 29, 1997
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he97119t.pdf
- Social Security Disability: SSA Actions to Reduce Backlogs and Achieve More Consistent Decisions Deserve High Priority. T-HEHS-97-118. 12 pp. April 24, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he97118t.pdf

5/7: BenefitsLink is proud to announce a new Q&A column! Check out Stop, Look & Listen: Questions and Answers about Railroad Retirement, hosted by Robert S. Kaufman, a former official with the United States Railroad Retirement Board. After more than 30 years of experience in the program, he retired to private life in 1994. Note: Mr. Kaufman answers questions in his private capacity; he does not represent the Railroad Retirement Board. All aboard!

5/7: A Renewed Look at ESOP Feasibility Planning, from the Administrator's Notebook column on the Web site of the National Center for Employee Ownership (5/97).

5/6: The following benefits-related item was added to the "Recently Issued Reports" page on the U.S. Government Accounting Office's World Wide Web site (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/newtitle.htm) in Portable Document (PDF) format. (Use the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view it.)
- Income Security Issues Issue Area Plan -- Fiscal Years 1997 and 1998. IAP-97-8. 10 pp. April 1, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ia97008.pdf

5/5: Your Rollover IRA Can Fund Early Retirement, by Ray Osheroff. Basic info about the substantially-equal-payments exception to the usual 10% excise tax that applies to distributions before age 59-1/2.

5/5: An excellent Web site containing well-organized, helpful information for pension plan participants is Fidelity's Workplace Savings page.

5/5: More questions and answers in the popular column, Q&A for Plan Defects: Correction/VCR/CAP --
Question 28: In Q&A 27, we dealt with the following question from a reader: An employer adopted an insurance company prototype profit sharing plan in 1987. The employer was advised by the insurance company on numerous occasions that it needed to adopt a restatement of the plan for TRA '86 and subsequent law changes, but took no action. Now, the plan is being audited by the IRS. Are any of the IRS remedial programs available for correcting the plan's nonamender defect? Are there any defenses which can be asserted? If the defect is corrected under the IRS Closing Agreement Program (CAP), what are the likely IRS sanctions?
Answer (click here).

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