We shared a Congressional Company Visit Kit in August Recess and the Congressional Company Visit. The ESCA District Events Tool Kit is another great resource. The Tool Kit defines a district event and an in-district event:

In our ESOP Planning 2008: Plan Documents and Disclosures installment we provided some links to some Year End Checklists. One of the themes in all of the checklists was to make sure the Code Section 415 Amendments are adopted by the appropriate deadline:

Six Tips to be a Better Boss and Improve Your Culture shares six ways to becoming improve your culture and some related to dos:

Explaining the Ups and Downs of Stock Value discusses five tips in communicating stock value:

Privately held ESOPs and public-company PE ratios discusses the impact that the price-earnings (PE) ratios of comparable public companies has on the valuation of a privately held ESOP company. It notes that PE ratios likely have further to fall and discusses what this means for ESOP companies:

Next week is America Saves Week 2009:

Corporation not entitled to 404(k) deduction for redemption of stock used to satisfy ESOP distribution obligations discusses General Mills, Inc. v. United States, No. 08-1638 (8th Cir., January 26, 2009), which found that a corporation was not entitled to an IRC Section 404(k) deduction for the proceeds from a stock redemption that were used to fund cash distributions:

Reminder - Edmunson Scholarships Available for 2009 provides a reminder to submit your application for The Employee Ownership Foundation Charles R. Edmunson Scholarship:

The February 17, 2009 Employee Ownership Update is online and discusses the following:

Last week we discussed ways to freeze or eliminate a safe harbor match. Eliminating or Reducing a Plan's Matching Formula discusses the issues related to eliminating or reducing a fixed matching contribution formula by providing 3 FAQs:

When we last left our ESOP Corporate Governance discussion, we had discussed Responsibilities of the Board of Directors and More Responsibilities of the Board of Directors and shared some Board Member Job Descriptions. The Three Duties discusses the three legal duties that are the legal requirements and ethical guidelines of a Director:

Here are links to recently published rules and regulations:

Here are links to recently published rules and regulations:

ESOP Technical Alert provides a reminder of a potential side effect of layoffs – a partial plan termination:

The IRS has been informally stating that they are holding approval of plan documents containing Provisions for Account Segregation and/or Rebalancing. Corey Rosen explores the issue further in ESOP Account Segregation and Rebalancing Sense and Nonsense. He discusses the issue and notes that he and many ESOP experts feel the provisions are legal:

1. May an employer freeze a safe harbor 401(k) plan mid-year or, in the alternative, amend it into a traditional 401(k) plan mid-year?
   
2. What are the necessary steps to freeze or amend mid-year a safe harbor 401(k) plan which provides the safe harbor matching contribution?
   
3. May a safe harbor 401(k) plan with a safe harbor matching contribution formula and an additional matching contribution formula (discretionary or fixed) that is intended to qualify under the ACP safe harbor (ACP safe harbor match) eliminate or amend the ACP safe harbor match? May a safe harbor 401(k) plan eliminate or amend the ACP safe harbor match and not the safe harbor matching contribution formula that enables the plan to satisfy the ADP test safe harbor?
   
4. For an employer that wishes to retain flexibility over the safe harbor nonelective contribution, what plan design options are available?
   
5. What steps must the employer follow to apply the "maybe" notice approach?
   
6. May an employer apply the "maybe" notice for more than one plan year?
   
7. May an employer terminate a safe harbor 401(k) plan mid-year?
   
8. What steps must the employer follow to terminate a safe harbor 401(k) plan?
   
9. May an employer terminate a safe harbor 401(k) plan and retain safe harbor status for the short plan year?
   
10. What factors must an employer use to determine if it has incurred a substantial business hardship?
    

The February 2, 2009 Employee Ownership Update is online and discusses the following:

In Employee Retention Ideas, we discussed effective program one firm uses to ensure their key employees are taking a vacation. The Virtues and Challenges of a Long Break explores how many firms find sabbaticals to be worthy investments. This Journal of Accountancy article includes comments from HLB Tautges Redpath, Ltd, a 100% ESOP-Owned Accounting Firm. Here is the executive summary:

Stock Options, Restricted Stock, Phantom Stock, Stock Appreciation Rights, and Employee Stock Purchase Plans discusses the five basic kinds of individual equity compensation plans:

We recently discussed New Approaches to Spread Employee Ownership. One of the new approaches was a new Employee Ownership Teaching Module. Employee Ownership: A Topic for the Entrepreneurship Curriculum shows "four areas in the entrepreneurship curriculum where teaching about employee ownership can 1) put a needed spotlight on this widespread and useful practice and 2) add conceptual value and rich examples for the course topics being taught," and discusses how employee ownership is underappreciated:

As most of you that are responsible for Benefit Payment Government Filings are aware, tomorrow is the deadline to distribute IRS Forms 1099-R. Many attorneys are also well aware of the submission deadline for Cycle C employers. Feature: 2009 ERISA Compliance Calendar for DB/DC/403(b) Plans contains a calendar of key events in 2009, including the following January/February dates: