Software of the Month Club 1996 May/Software of the Month Club 1996 May.iso/mac/ISO9660/ZIPFILES/SBA962.ZIP/F137.SBE

Text File | 1996-02-15 | 5.9 KB | 133 lines

@110 CHAP 8

        ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │  FLEXIBLE BENEFIT PLANS AND CAFETERIA PLANS   │
        └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘

FLEXIBLE SPENDING PLANS.  An increasing popular type of tax-
favored employee benefit plan in the last few years is the
flexible spending plan, or "flex plan," which comes in at
least three flavors.  Each of the flex plans described
below are designed to permit employees to choose how much
to spend on a tax-free basis for various employee benefits,
such as health care or dependent care.

(NOTE:  Flex plans are available for your employees only and
cannot cover sole proprietors, partners in a partnership, or
the 2% or more shareholders of an S corporation.  Since your
@IF117xx]firm is a C corporation, however, you, as owner, can parti-
@IF117xx]cipate in any flex plan adopted by the corporation, if you
@IF117xx]are a corporate employee of @NAME.)
@IF118xx]firm is an S corporation, a flex plan may be a great deal
@IF120xx]firm is unincorporated, a flex plan may be a nice benefit
@IF119xx]for rank-and-file employees, but will not be available for
@IF118xx]anyone who owns over 2% of @NAME.)
@IF116xx]the partners who own @NAME.)
@IF115xx]you, as the sole proprietor of @NAME.)
@IF000xx]
@IF000xx](However, this is an academic question at present for your
@IF000xx]firm, @NAME, which has no employees.)

  . PREMIUM-CONVERSION ACCOUNTS.  This is the simplest
    kind of flex account.  It primarily is set up to allow
    employees to pay for their share of health, disability
    or group-term life insurance premiums with untaxed
    dollars, by deducting specified amounts out of their
    regular paychecks to pay for such coverage.  Those
    amounts the employees agree to have withheld from
    their salaries or wages to pay such insurance premiums
    are excluded from their taxable income (but deductible
    by the corporation or unincorporated employer).  Such
    plans, in effect, convert part of wages directly into
    insurance payments, without having the government
    first remove a slice for taxes.  Premium-conversion
    accounts are practical for even the smallest compan-
    ies, with only one or two employees.

  . FLEXIBLE REIMBURSEMENT ACCOUNTS.  These are accounts
    an employee may agree to contribute a specified amount
    to each year, under an employer plan, where the
    employee gets to draw on the account to pay for health
    care expenses not covered by the company (such as
    medical insurance deductibles, vision care, dental
    coverage, etc.) or for up to $5,000 a year for depend-
    ent care expenses.  Here's how these accounts work:
    Before the start of each year, the employees must each
    estimate their medical and dependent care (child-care
    or elder-care) costs for the coming year that they
    want paid out of their accounts.  The amount designa-
    ted by an employee is withheld from his or her pay-
    check during the year (tax-free).  As expenses are in-
    curred during the year for health and dependent care,
    the employee submits requests for reimbursement out of
    the account to the plan administrator, up to the spec-
    ified maximum.  Employers may choose to supplement or
    match amounts employees choose to have withheld from
    their pay, as an additional tax-free benefit to the
    employee.

    Flexible reimbursement accounts may stand alone, or
    may be combined with premium-conversion accounts.
    They are feasible for fairly small employers, as well,
    although administrative costs may tend to be greater
    than for premium-conversion accounts.

  . CAFETERIA PLANS.  These are more complex plans, and
    are rarely adopted by companies with fewer than 50
    employees or so.  Contrary to what you might infer
    from the name, these plans have nothing to do with
    setting up a company cafeteria.  Instead, under a caf-
    eteria plan, a company gives employees a cafeteria-
    like "menu" of benefit choices, provides a fixed num-
    ber of tax-free dollars per employee each year, and
    allows the employees to each select or "buy" the
    particular benefits desired, such as the following
    typical choices:

       . 401(k) plan contributions (where the employee is
         offered a "cash or deferral" option with regard
         to a portion of his or her pay);

       . health insurance;

       . life insurance;

       . disability insurance;

       . vision or dental care, or both;

       . vacation time.

    If the costs of the benefits selected exceeds the dol-
    lar amount provided by the employer, the employee may
    fund the balance with salary reduction amounts through
    premium-conversion or reimbursement accounts, or both,
    also on an untaxed basis.

Under flex plans, the golden rule is "use it or lose it."
Any amount in an employee's account that is not utilized
by the employee during the year is forfeited, and reverts
back to the employer at the end of the year.  Note that
flex plans are required to meet nondiscrimination tests,
to ensure that highly compensated employees do not receive
a disproportionate share of the benefits provided. (I.R.C.
Sec. 125)  Also, a recent IRS ruling (Rev. Rul. 91-26) has
held that partners in a partnership or 2% (or greater)
shareholders of an S corporation may not participate in a
cafeteria or flex plan set up for employees of a partner-
ship or an S corporation.

Note that under ERISA, all cafeteria or flex plans (unlike
many other employee "welfare plans") are required to file
an annual report (Form 5500 series) and attach Schedule F,
for fringe benefit plans.

For more information on flex plans, contact:

         Employers Council on Flexible Compensation
         927 15th St. N.W., Suite 1000
         Washington, D.C. 20005
           [phone]