Irs Section 409a

Notwithstanding section 885 d 1 of the american jobs creation act of 2004 pub.
Irs section 409a. 109 135 provided the following. Internal revenue code 26 usca section 409a. Section 409a applies to all companies offering nonqualified deferred compensation plans to employees.
409a affects nonqualified retirement plans and other deferred compensation arrangements. We are not attorneys so we will leave the legal minutiae of that definition for others to grapple with noting only that generally speaking a deferred compensation plan is an arrangement whereby an employee service provider in 409a parlance receives compensation in a later tax year. Basically under 409a a nqdc plan is defined broadly as compensation or a legally binding right to compensation that is promised to be paid to participants in a subsequent plan year fogleman says.
Thus section 409a can impact not only traditional nqdc plans such as salary deferral plans and supplemental executive retirement plans serps but also arrangements such as executive employment agreements severance. Service recipients are generally employers but those who hire independent contractors are also service recipients. An internal revenue code section 409a primer by tony ling and galen mason1 the american jobs creation act of 2004 was signed into law on october 22 2004.
Notwithstanding section 885 d 1 of the american jobs creation act of 2004 subsection b of section 409a of the internal revenue code of 1986 shall take effect on january 1 2005. Until further guidance is issued for purposes of section 409a taxpayers may treat the legally binding right to the payments excludible from seca tax under section 1402 a 10 as arising on the last day of the partner s taxable year before the partner s first taxable year in which such payments are excludible from seca tax under section. Section 409a defines nqdc as a legally binding right to compensation that is payable and taxable in a later tax year.
Deferred compensation exists when an employee consultant or board member has a contractual right to compensation that may be paid in later taxable years and includes many arrangements not typically thought of as deferred compensation e g severance benefits. Section 409a of the internal revenue code is a complex and often counterintuitive set of tax rules applicable to deferred compensation. Section 409a of the united states internal revenue code regulates nonqualified deferred compensation paid by a service recipient to a service provider by generally imposing a 20 excise tax when certain design or operational rules contained in the section are violated.
Read the code on findlaw.