Washington (March 16, 2004) -- The Internal Revenue Service said it is allowing employers to pass along a portion of the expenses of a qualified plan only to former employees who leave money in the plan, the agency said in a recent ruling.
In Rev. Rul. 2004-10, the IRS gave the example of a plan that provides that certain administrative expenses are allocated to the individual accounts of participants and beneficiaries based upon the ratio of each account balance to the total account balances of all participants and beneficiaries. The share of these expenses allocable to each participant's and beneficiary's account is paid from the plan, and charged against the account to the extent not paid by the employer.
This particular employer pays the portion of these expenses allocable to the accounts of current employees, but not those of former employees or their beneficiaries.
The IRS ruled that this plan still satisfies the Section 411(a)(11) requirement on substantial restrictions on distributions merely because it charges reasonable plan administrative expenses to the accounts of the former employees and their beneficiaries, even though it does not charge the current employees' accounts.
-- WebCPA staff
