Posts in Employer Plan
Early Distributions and Penalty Tax Exceptions

IRAs and qualified retirement plans (QRPs) are intended to be used for retirement. Therefore, the tax laws and regulations encourage people to leave their money in an IRA or QRP until they retire. If distributions are taken from an IRA (including an IRA holding SEP contributions) or QRP before the account owner reaches age 59½, a 10 percent early distribution penalty tax is assessed on the taxable amount of the distribution, unless a penalty tax exception applies.

Read More
Deadlines for IRA Activities and Possible Postponements

If a client has received an extension to file his taxes, he may believe that he has an extension to make a prior-year contribution. It is important to understand that a tax filing extension is not an extension to make a prior-year IRA contribution: it is only an extension to file the tax return. But other postponements may apply to some of your clients.

Read More
Mergers, Acquisitions, Dispositions, and Spinoffs can Affect a Plan’s Minimum Coverage Obligations and Testing

When a business is acquired or sold, the employer’s business structure may change (e.g., a sole proprietorship may become a corporation); the employer may join or leave a controlled or affiliated service group; or the employer may change for one or more individuals. Such business transactions could affect many aspects of the business’s qualified retirement plan.

Read More
Prevailing Wage Contributions in Defined Contribution Plans

During the Great Depression, a common practice among contractors bidding for federal contracts was reducing workers’ wages; and thereby, their labor costs, to win bids. While prevailing wage laws had existed on a state and local government level for more than three decades at this time, the first and most significant federal law–protecting the workers’ and their families’ welfare–was the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931.

Read More
IRC Sec. 402(g) Excesses Explained

Plan administrators and plan participants must limit the elective deferrals that are contributed to their qualified retirement plans each calendar year to the Internal Revenue Code Section (IRC Sec.) 402(g) limit. The limit includes elective deferrals (including both pretax and designated Roth deferrals) that participants can defer into their qualified retirement plans (in aggregate) for each taxable year.

Read More
IRS Releases Final Regulations on Tax Withholding Requirements

The Internal Revenue Service recently released Treasury Decision (TD) 10008, which provides guidance on income tax withholding requirements for certain periodic payments and nonperiodic distributions from deferred compensation plans, individual retirement arrangements (IRAs), and commercial annuities.

Read More