Nathan A."Nate" Adams is a Partner in our
Tallahassee office.
Timely Topics
"Church plans" are pension plans (including defined
benefit or defined contribution plans) exempt (without an
irrevocable election) from many of the legal requirements of the
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), such as from the
funding, vesting and participation requirements, the
nondiscrimination rules that apply to tax-sheltered 403(b)
annuities, and annual Form 5500 reporting requirement. The ERISA
nondiscrimination rules contain two requirements: (1) employers may
not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees when
making nonelective employer contributions to employee TSAs; and (2)
if any employee may elect to have the organization make a
contribution to his or her TSA of more than $200, all employees may
elect it. Simpler pre-ERISA nondiscrimination rules apply to
qualified church plans.
