Month: August 2009

The recent edition of the IRS’s Retirement News for Employers reminds employers that required minimum distributions from defined benefit plans are still required for 2009 and that the 2009 waiver does not apply to these types of plans. See also this Q & A from the IRS’s website:

Does the 2009 RMD waiver also apply to defined benefit plans?

No, 2009 RMDs are waived only from defined contribution plans (including 401(k), profit-sharing, money purchase pension, SEP, SIMPLE IRA, SARSEP, 403(b), and certain 457(b) retirement plans) and Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs). They are still required from most defined benefit plans. However, in some rare instances, a defined benefit plan may provide a benefit based in part on the balance of a participants separate account. This type of an account, known as 414(k) account, is treated as a defined contribution plan and is covered by the 2009 RMD waiver. Participants should contact their employer and /or plan administrator to determine their type of plan.

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

From the Tax Prof Blog:

The Tax Foundation has released U.S. Lags While Competitors Accelerate Corporate Income Tax Reform:

New data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that the U.S. corporate tax rate has fallen even further out of step with the rest of the industrialized world as countries such as Canada, the Czech Republic, Korea, and Sweden have cut their corporate rates in 2009, lowering the average statutory corporate tax rate of all OECD nations to 26.5%.

With a combined federal and state corporate tax rate of 39.1%, the U.S. continues to impose the second-highest overall corporate rate among industrialized countries. Only Japan’s 39.5% combined rate is higher. As the chart below indicates, the weighted average (accounting for country size) corporate rate of non-U.S. OECD nations is now below 30% for the first time in history. 2009 marks the 12th consecutive year in which the average corporate tax rate of non-U.S. OECD nations has been below the U.S. rate.

For an article providing a review of recent legal developments pertaining to retiree medical, read: “Retiree Medical Litigation’s Dirty Little Secret: “Location, Location, Location!“

(Reader beware: Some might take offense at the descriptive phrase used in the article: “Shipwreck of old age. . . ” 🙂