Break from the Grind July 13, 2017

A Little Friday File Fun

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In Brighton, England, a Ferrari driver ignored warning signs about not parking on the ninth level of the city’s marina parking deck overnight on Saturdays. He returned Sunday morning to find his sports car surrounded by stalls, vendors and shoppers. The Marina holds a flea market on that deck on Sundays. “He had to drive through the market making sure he didn’t hit any customers or traders’ goods that they spread out on the floor,” a witness who filmed the incident told video site Newsflare.               

In Muskogee, Oklahoma, police arrested a man on six felony warrants and were leading him to a police car when he made an unusual request. “I asked the officer if I could propose,” the man told CNN. “The officer said, ‘You want to do what?’ and I said, ‘I want to propose to her.’” In police body camera footage of the encounter, the man can be heard telling his girlfriend, “I love you. Will you be my wife, please?” The girlfriend agreed and an officer switched the man’s handcuffs from the back to the front so he could place the engagement ring on her finger.

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In San Francisco, California, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing arguments in a case about whether a monkey owns the rights to his selfies. A lower court judge ruled against the monkey last year, saying there was no indication that Congress intended to extend copyright protection to animals. According to the Associated Press, the monkey is a free-living crested macaque who snapped the pictures with an unattended camera in Sulawesi, Indonesia, in 2011. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sought a court order in 2015 allowing it to administer all proceeds from the photos to benefit the monkey. British nature photographer David Slater, whose camera the monkey used, says the British copyright for the photos obtained by his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., should be honored worldwide.

In Bismarck, North Dakota, the state wants to preserve the 10,000-square-foot home that has housed North Dakota’s governor for 57 years, while making way for a larger $5 million mansion. It is accepting proposals from people who can have the home if they can move it. The home needs to be moved by September. A home that size and old could cost at least $250,000 to move, said a local house mover, according to the Associated Press.

In Lakefield, Massachusetts, a man has gotten drivers to slow down for years with the help of a life-sized cutout of a police cruiser posted in his driveway. He told WFXT-TV he got the life-sized Crown Victoria sign from a friend who owned a salvage yard. He puts it outside his home on weekends and during holidays to slow down drivers in the area. The sign is reflective at night. He says town police are OK with the sign, but some passing drivers have given offensive hand gestures.

In Ross, Pennsylvania, a homeowner tied the battery-operated clock to a string in September 2004 and lowered it inside the wall so the beeping alarm would pinpoint the spot he needed to drill for a TV cable. But the clock fell off the string and has been beeping at 6:50 p.m. or 7:50 p.m. each day, depending on whether it’s Daylight Savings Time. A heating and air contractor saw the story on the local CBS news station, and went to the homeowners to offer to remove it. After nearly 14 years, the clock has been removed through a garage vent.

In Mankato, Minnesota, a couple had their dream wedding and asked the bride’s 92-year-old grandmother to be the flower girl. According to the local NBC News station, pushing her walker down the grass aisle, she tossed a path of flower petals as guests cheered and applauded. As she finished her duties and sat down, she said with a laugh, “That was hard work!”

When you just can’t get to, or afford going to, the amusement park.

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A news reporter’s frustration is caught on camera.

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Compliance July 13, 2017

IRS Updates Procedures for Applying for Suspension of Benefits

The MPRA permits the sponsor of a multiemployer defined benefit plan in critical and declining status to suspend benefits in certain situations.
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The Internal Revenue Service has issued Revenue Procedure 2017-43 containing revised procedures for applications for a suspension of benefits under a multiemployer defined benefit pension plan that is in critical and declining status.

The procedures replace the procedures set forth in Rev. Proc. 2016-27, and are intended to facilitate the review of an application for a suspension of benefits in light of the experience of the Department of the Treasury in processing applications. The procedures set forth in this revenue procedure must be followed for applications submitted on or after September 1, 2017.

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This revenue procedure includes the following changes from Rev. Proc. 2016-27:

  • Section 2.07 has been revised to provide that if the Treasury Department identifies an error in the application after it is submitted, then the Treasury Department may request that the plan sponsor provide additional materials to correct the error.;
  • Sections 3.01(2) and 3.02(2) contain a new requirement that the projected withdrawal liability payments that are included as part of the projection of the plan’s available resources, and as part of the support for the certification that the plan is projected to avoid insolvency (taking the proposed suspension into account), must be separately identified as projected payments attributable to prior withdrawals and projected payments attributable to expected future withdrawals;
  • Sections 4.01(1) and 4.01(2) have been simplified by replacing the requirement to provide sample calculations with respect to the guarantee-based limitation under Section 432(e)(9)(D)(i) of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) and the disability-based limitation under Section 432(e)(9)(D)(iii) for an individual in each category or group that is treated differently under the suspension with a requirement that those sample calculations be provided only for an individual currently receiving benefits, a contingent beneficiary of an individual currently receiving benefits, and a future retiree;
  • Section 4.01(3) has been clarified to specify the age categories for which sample calculations with respect to the age-based limitation under Section 432(e)(9)(D)(ii) (taking into account the guarantee-based limitation and, if applicable, the disability-based limitation) must be provided;
  • Section 4.04(2) has been revised to provide that certain information that would otherwise be required to demonstrate that the proposed suspension is equitably distributed in accordance with Section 432(e)(9)(D)(vi) need not be provided in the case of an application in connection with a proposed partition of a plan under Section 4233 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA);
  • Section 4.05 has been revised to clarify the different categories of individuals with respect to which sample notices must be provided as part of the application;
  • A new section 6.03 and Appendix B have been added to consolidate the descriptions of the actuarial assumptions used with respect to certain illustrations and projections included in the application (formerly contained in sections 3.01, 3.02, 4.02 and 4.03) and to provide additional detail regarding those assumptions;
  • Section 6.09 (formerly section 6.08) has been revised to require the inclusion of a narrative statement of the reasons the plan is in critical and declining status;
  • Section 7.08 has been revised to add a requirement to provide (as part of the required excerpts from the most recently filed Form 5500) the accountant’s report under section 103(a)(3) of ERISA; and
  • Section 8.02 has been revised to add a requirement to provide the date on which the Treasury Department indicated that the application is a candidate for resubmission review, if applicable.

The new procedure also includes minor clarifications to the Model Notice of Application for Approval of a Proposed Reduction of Benefits and to the power of attorney and declaration of representative form.

Appendix D (formerly Appendix C) has been updated to make clarifications to the application checklist and to reflect the other changes made in the revenue procedure.

The MPRA permits the sponsor of a multiemployer defined benefit plan in critical and declining status to suspend benefits in certain situations. Since the issuance of final rules for applying for suspension of benefits, a number of plans have applied.

The Treasury Department denied the application for the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan, but approved the application for the Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Fund.

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