Deposits were late if measured by date of deposit, but the checks had been mailed a week previous. Do we calculate from the check's mailing date or from the date it was deposited into the account?

The Certificate in Retirement Plans provides an overview of defined benefit and defined contribution plans, Social Security, basic investment principles, qualified plans, and 401(k) plans, as well as their surrounding legal and regulatory environment.

Has anyone seen this? What election rules apply to such a deferral? What are the pros and cons of a plan allowing this?

Client has a defined benefit Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan. What IRS reporting form should be used for payments under this Plan (W-2, 1099-R, 1099-MISC)? Here are the details: It's a non-qualified Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan aka, a SERP. It's unfunded. The covered executives made no contribution to the Plan -- IT IS NOT A NQDC! The defined benefits are computed based on years-of-service combined with a targeted percentage of final average compensation. The benefits are paid out of general company funds on a monthly basis. There is NO SURVIVOR BENEFIT. There is a very strict anti-alienation clause. There is no option to take a lump-sum payment. So, given those facts, what year-end IRS form should these payments be reported on? Specific cites to IRS rules and regulation would be most appreciated.

I live in Texas and need assistance. I separated from my employer in April 2018. I had outstanding, non-verified receipts from Wageworks. My employer has withheld my last paycheck because I have not verified these FSA transactions. Are they able to do this?

A governmental plan requires employees to contribute to the Plan post tax. The monthly benefit reflects both the taxable and non-taxable portions and are reported appropriately. If a retiree dies before receiving benefits equal to his or her contributions (plus interest at the plan's rate), then his or her beneficiary receives a refund equal to the difference between the total benefit received and the retiree's post-tax contributions (plus interest). Is this refund taxable? How is the refund reported to the beneficiary?

[1] Participant is on deathbed, calls into provider (recordkeeper) and gives verbal authorization to transfer her account balance (approximately $160K) to an IRA at the same provider (to accommodate a partial distribution request). Provider complies with verbal direction. Prior to the transfer, the participant's beneficiaries are her two children. [2] Money moves to IRA. The participant's two children, who have power of attorney, request and receive distribution of $60K on the participant's behalf (for medical expenses). [3] Participant dies. The two children file a claim against IRA for benefits. They are told that they are not set up as the beneficiaries for the IRA. [4] The two children approach the provider and state that the correct procedures weren't followed for the transfer to the IRA and want it restored back to the plan. The provider agrees that the transfer was not legitimate, but is not willing to restore the $60K that was taken out via power of attorney during the short time the funds were in the IRA. So, any ideas of the best way to unwind this mess?

I work one job as a full-time employee and I max out my contribution by contributing $18,000 into the plan. I guess it has gone up this year a bit. I also have a side business where I am the only employee. I know I can't put any more into a 401(k) account for that business because I'm maxing out my contributions into my W-2 job. If I am making $80k in the side business, what would be the most I could contribute to the second plan? If it matters, I am an LLC, but I file taxes as an S-corp.

Company has a QACA safe harbor 401(k) plan with matching contributions made on a payroll basis. The company is considering entering into an arrangement with an insurance company to have it make short-term disability payments to the company's employees. The arrangement is NOT insurance. The insurance company will determine whether employees are disabled and, if so, make payments directly to the employees using the insurance company's EIN, and withholding taxes, garnishments, etc., and issuing W-2s to the employees. Loan repayments and 401(k) deferrals will not be withheld. The employer company will then reimburse the insurance company for the payments made. I am familiar with ASO agreements to administer short-term disability payments, but not direct payments by the insurance company that are not insurance. No one I know professionally has heard of this type of arrangement and each thinks the payments are compensation from the employer company. The insurance company says they've been doing this for years for many clients and the payments are not compensation from the employer. Are these payments compensation from the employer company (and not the insurance company)? These non-insurance payments are being made on account of service with the employer company.

Plan sponsor wants to match dollar for dollar up to $18,500. The catch is, the employees compensation will be reduced by the match amount. I don't think this is possible under the CODA rules. Ignoring ACP testing for the moment, is this even possible? After I posted the question, I found this in the EOB. I think this answers my question, but still open to thoughts.

2. Facts and circumstances test for non-partners.When an election to waive or vary a contribution is offered to common law employees(including the common law employees of a partnership or sole proprietorship), the existence of a deemed CODA depends on the particular facts and circumstances. The IRS does notapply to common law employees the automatic deemed CODA rule described in [1] above. This is true even for shareholders of a corporate plan sponsor who are participants in the plan because they also are employees of the corporation. However, the election by a shareholder of the corporation to waive or vary the employer contribution made on his behalf to the qualified plan will be carefully scrutinized by the IRS. The IRS warns its field agents of this situation in its audit guidelines in Announcement 94-101. The guidelines include the following example to illustrate this issue.

2.a. Example.A profit sharing plan permits an employee to elect in or out of participation on an annual basis. For a 3-year period, Employee C elects out of participate for the first of such plan years, and then elects to participate for the other two plan years. Employee D elects to participate for the first and second of such plan years, and then elects out for the third plan year. C's and D's salaries increase and decrease for each of those years in a way that is roughly analogous to the contribution that would otherwise have been made to the plan. The guidelines state this arrangement is probably a CODA, but, if the facts and circumstances suggest that the changes in salary have nothing to dowith the elections, it may notbe a CODA. If C and D are shareholders of the corporation that maintains the plan, it will be difficult to prove that the elections do not have any effect on their salaries from the corporation.

3. Tax consequences of a deemed CODA/treatment as nonqualified cash or deferred arrangement.When a CODA is deemed to exist in a qualified plan, the contributions made to the plan pursuant to the CODA are taxed to the employees that are deemed to have elected those contributions, unless the CODA satisfies the requirements of IRC Section 401(k). See Treas. Reg. Section 1.402(a)-1(d). If a qualified plan contains a deemed CODA, but the CODA does not satisfy Section 401(k), the plan has a nonqualified cash or deferred arrangement. Under a nonqualified cash or deferred arrangement, allof the employees' elective deferrals (i.e., contributions made by the employer which are deemed to be elective deferrals because of the existence of the deemed CODA) are includible in gross income.

A safe harbor 401k plan was set up believing that it was for just the owner and his employee. The enrollment meeting was done by the broker. We now find out that it was the intention of the owner to set up the plan as part of a union contract. The owner apparently is the only non-union employee. It's been many years since I've worked on a plan with union employees. Are they able to have a safe harbor plan with the basic match? Does the union's contract specify the eligibility requirements, match,etc.?