The Internal Revenue Service has issued letters to approximately 1,700 businesses
and retirement plan sponsors alerting them to new income and excise taxes applicable
to S corporation employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and warning of the consequences
of participating in abusive schemes involving ESOPs and S corporations.
As many of the nation?s largest employers struggle to control rising retiree
health costs, they are asking their retirees to pay more and plan to do so again
in 2005, according to new survey results.
Chief executive officers and employees saw the value of their stock option
awards decline by more than 40 percent between 2001 and 2003, according to an
annual study by Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the federal agency that insures
pensions, announced that the maximum insurance benefit for participants in underfunded
pension plans terminating in 2005 is $45,614 per year for those who retire at
age 65, up from $44,386.32 in 2004.
While health care and benefit costs have risen sharply over the past decade, most
workers have remained surprisingly satisfied with their employer-sponsored health
benefits, according to survey results released by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, an HR
consulting firm.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has voted to give companies another
six months to comply with a rule requiring companies to treat employee stock options as an expense, the Washington Post reports.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at possible ways to make it easier
for shareholders to determine how much companies are paying their top executives,
the Washington Post reports.
The percentage of workers participating in employment-based retirement plans
rose marginally in 2003, reversing a two-year decline, according to a new analysis from a Washington-based nonprofit group that studies employee benefits.
