Benefits Counsel

This article for Reuters at Yahoo! News reports: “Senate Passes Child Tax Credit Refund Bill.” The bill would ensure that low-income families benefit from an increase in the child tax credit that was part of Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act.

Perkins & Coie has this article discussing the SEC’s stance on the 906 Certification requirement for SEC Form 11-K. The article points out that the SEC and the Department of Justice are leaning towards a conclusion that Form 11-K is covered by the 906 Certification requirement. The article also discusses who should make the certification. Finally, there is this discussion thread at Benefitslink on the issue. The issue has been discussed in prior posts which can now be viewed under this topic–Securities Requirements: Form 11-k 906 Cert.

The Volokh Conspiracy has posted some interesting thoughts on how bloggers may in the future begin to wield “considerable influence” in the legal academic community.

While it is always important for a plan fiduciary to have an ERISA attorney involved in advising them about their fiduciary duties under ERISA, CFO.com does provide some very good online resources and tools for ERISA plan fiduciaries: this 401(K) Checklist for Fiduciaries, and this article delving into why employees file lawsuits against their employers over their 401(k) plans, as well as this very handy Buyer’s Guide to 401(k) Plan Providers. The Guide allows users to compare the different providers and links allow the user to visit, from the online guide, the different websites of the various 401(k) providers.

Today’s Federal Register is here.

It really is true that the IRS is becoming more user-friendly! They have published today in their online version of their Employee Plan News the following:

New Revenue Procedure 2003-44, governing the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS)

A red-lined version of the Revenue Procedure
A Chart comparing the substance of the old Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc. 2002-47) and the new Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc. 2003-44)
A topical index to the Rev. Proc. (very handy when it comes to trying to find something in that voluminous document!)
And, yes! it’s true!, a powerpoint presentation of the changes made to EPCRS by this new Rev. Proc.

Also, coming this summer, says the IRS is a new Correction Programs CD-ROM with video clips and a comprehensive overview of the program.

More on pension funding with this article at PlanSponsor.com regarding a report by Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) Corp. accounting analyst David Zion who sees the decline in interest rates as being the main reason behind the whole pension funding crises. More on the report by Arden Dale for the Associated Press at SFGate.com.

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was responsible for this country’s first income tax which was levied to help pay the army in the Civil War? According to today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal, citizens complied by declaring their own income and publishing the figure in the newspaper–it was assumed that no one would publicly lie.

Mr. Svenson points out this article by John Dvorak for PC Magazine on what the future might look like for blogging.

Two articles analyzing the DOL Field Assistance Bulletin 2003-3 regarding allocation of plan expenses have been posted: one article by Jeffrey Kroh at Pepper Hamilton LLP and another article by Cigna at Cigna.com.