SIMPLE, SEP, and SARSEP Answer Book, 15th Edition

SIMPLE, SEP, and SARSEP Answer Book provides up-to-date coverage of recent legislative and regulatory developments in simplified employee pension (SEP) plans and savings incentive match plans for employees (SIMPLEs). It provides clear and concise guidance on the complex design, administration, and compliance issues that arise in connection with SIMPLEs, SEPs, and salary reduction SEPs (SARSEPs).

The Fifteenth Edition offers the practitioner in-depth understanding of the full range of issues concerning these plans. Highlights include explanation and discussion of the following new issues and recent guidance:

• Applicability of the automatic contribution arrangement (ACA) rules that would allow negative elections in a SARSEP or SIMPLE IRA
• The new rules for the taxation of a participant's excess contributions when timely distributed from an IRA
• The new Form 1099-R reporting codes and changes to Form 5498
• When service as an employee is treated as a trade or business, the application of self-employment taxes to amounts not subject to social security taxes
• The safe-harbor rules applicable to a payroll deduction IRA program
• Application of the new seven-day safe-harbor rule for forwarding participant contributions to a SEP or SIMPLE
• Expanded coverage of the plan corrections programs under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) for correcting plan failures under Revenue Procedure 2008-50, which includes a new Streamlined Application procedure for correcting plan failures under a SEP, SARSEP, and SIMPLE
• Loss of deduction for not contributing to a SEP account of an owner's eligible spouse
• Restorative payments (of a good-faith claim of liability) and the annual contribution limits
• Misclassification of employees as independent contractors and having an individual's status determined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
• Suits for a breach of fiduciary duty when the loss affects a single account
• Unlawful discharge or discrimination against a participant for exercising his or her Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) rights
• Separately stated fees for fiduciary services and the 2 percent floor on itemized deductions
• The modifications made by the final 415 regulations and the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act of 2008 to the definition of compensation regarding "differential pay" and when compensation may include payments made shortly after the end of the year, or after termination of employment, but paid in a subsequent year
• Prohibited transaction exemptions for service providers and eligible investment advice arrangements, improvements in portability, forgiveness of excise taxes, changes to the ERISA bonding requirements, and the new exceptions to the early distribution penalty