As health savings accounts (HSAs) become more popular, questions about how to correct errors also increase. One question financial organizations often receive is, “is this a mistaken distribution?”
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Electing a plan’s definition of compensation may be one of the most important elections in any plan document. The elections made will significantly affect the plan’s design and its operations.
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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.
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Coverdell education savings accounts (ESAs) provide a unique savings vehicle with the potential to generate tax-free earnings to cover the costs for education.
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As you may have already guessed, this is typically the busiest time of the year for many financial institutions. During the next few months, your staff may be juggling different tasks—including preparing the 2024 IRA reporting forms and answering a higher amount of calls from clients.
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An owner must begin taking money out of her 401(k) plan by April 1 of the year following the year in which she attains age 73 (also known as the owner’s required beginning date).
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Final federal withholding regulations were released in Treasury Decision (TD) 10008 on October 21, 2024. They address withholding requirements for payments made outside the United States.
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Working with plans that include both nonunion and union employees is not as intimidating as it may seem. There are a few things to keep in mind if you work with a plan that manages both employees that are a part of a union and those that are not union employees.
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Under most circumstances, a plan sponsor may not distribute plan assets to a participant without the participant’s consent as long as the distribution is “immediately distributable.”
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Although RMDs from separate IRAs can be aggregated and taken from one Traditional IRA, individuals cannot satisfy RMDs from qualified retirement plans by taking a Traditional IRA distribution. In addition, individuals cannot satisfy Traditional IRA RMDs by taking distributions from their qualified retirement plans.
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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.
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Can an employer establish a SEP or SIMPLE IRA for a minor child employee?
Short answer, yes.
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A plan administrator must take all necessary steps, as determined by the facts and circumstances of the participant’s situation, to determine if the participant is truly missing or nonresponsive.
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The new RMD regulations are not without at least one limitation for spouse beneficiaries, in the form of the “hypothetical RMD.” This could affect a spouse beneficiary who inherits an IRA or qualified retirement plan account before the deceased’s RMDs are required to begin—generally age 73—and who elects the new 10-year beneficiary payout rule in order to delay the onset of required distributions.
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Automatic enrollment features are attractive to employers that wish to increase the plan participation rate and encourage employees to begin saving for their own retirement. Automatic enrollment is designed to improve retirement preparedness and improve overall financial wellness.
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It is not turning age 65 that makes people ineligible to contribute to HSAs, but rather enrollment in Medicare that prevents HSA owners from making further contributions. And while most people do enroll in Medicare when they turn 65, it is not necessarily required.
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The ADP test measures or determines whether elective deferrals that are made in the plan are disproportionate between two groups of employees: the highly compensated employees (HCEs) and the non-highly compensated employees (NHCEs). This status is determined by such things as compensation and company ownership.
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Employers may now offer an increased SIMPLE IRA plan elective deferral limit, even though plan documents do not reflect the new provision. In fact, it may be required for some companies to allow these increased limits now, depending upon the size of the company.
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