26 USC 409 - Qualifications for tax credit employee stock ownership plans
Except as otherwise provided in this title, for purposes of this title, the term tax credit employee stock ownership plan means a defined contribution plan which
A plan meets the requirements of this subsection if
For purposes of paragraph (1), compensation of any participant in excess of the first $100,000 per year shall be disregarded.
For purposes of this subsection, the amount of compensation paid to a participant for any period is the amount of such participants compensation (within the meaning of section 415 (c)(3)) for such period.
Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the allocation to the account of any participant which is attributable to the basic employee plan credit or the credit allowed under section 411 (relating to the employee stock ownership credit) may be extended over whatever period may be necessary to comply with the requirements of section 415.
A plan meets the requirements of this subsection only if it provides that each participant has a nonforfeitable right to any employer security allocated to his account.
A plan meets the requirements of this subsection only if it provides that no employer security allocated to a participants account under subsection (b) (or allocated to a participants account in connection with matched employer and employee contributions) may be distributed from that account before the end of the 84th month beginning after the month in which the security is allocated to the account. To the extent provided in the plan, the preceding sentence shall not apply in the case of
This subsection shall not apply to any distribution required under section 401 (a)(9) or to any distribution or reinvestment required under section 401 (a)(28).
A plan meets the requirements of this subsection if it meets the requirements of paragraph (2) or (3), whichever is applicable.
If the employer has a registration-type class of securities, the plan meets the requirements of this paragraph only if each participant or beneficiary in the plan is entitled to direct the plan as to the manner in which securities of the employer which are entitled to vote and are allocated to the account of such participant or beneficiary are to be voted.
If the employer does not have a registration-type class of securities, the plan meets the requirements of this paragraph only if each participant or beneficiary in the plan is entitled to direct the plan as to the manner in which voting rights under securities of the employer which are allocated to the account of such participant or beneficiary are to be exercised with respect to any corporate matter which involves the voting of such shares with respect to the approval or disapproval of any corporate merger or consolidation, recapitalization, reclassification, liquidation, dissolution, sale of substantially all assets of a trade or business, or such similar transaction as the Secretary may prescribe in regulations.
For purposes of this subsection, the term, registration-type class of securities means
A plan meets the requirements of paragraph (3) with respect to an issue if
A plan meets the requirements of this subsection only if it is established on or before the due date (including any extension of such date) for the filing of the employers tax return for the first taxable year of the employer for which an employee plan credit is claimed by the employer with respect to the plan.
A plan which otherwise meets the requirements of this section shall not be considered to have failed to meet the requirements of section 401 (a) merely because it was not established by the close of the first taxable year of the employer for which an employee plan credit is claimed by the employer with respect to the plan.
A plan meets the requirement of this subsection only if it provides that amounts which are transferred to the plan (because of the requirements of section 48 (n)(1) or 41 (c)(1)(B))2 shall remain in the plan (and, if allocated under the plan, shall remain so allocated) even though part or all of the employee plan credit or the credit allowed under section 412 (relating to employee stock ownership credit) is recaptured or redetermined. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the references to section 48 (n)(1)2 and the employee plan credit shall refer to such section and credit as in effect before the enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1984.
A plan meets the requirements of this subsection if a participant who is entitled to a distribution from the plan
A plan which otherwise meets the requirements of this subsection or of section 4975 (e)(7) shall not be considered to have failed to meet the requirements of section 401 (a) merely because under the plan the benefits may be distributed in cash or in the form of employer securities.
In the case of a plan established and maintained by a bank (as defined in section 581) which is prohibited by law from redeeming or purchasing its own securities, the requirements of paragraph (1)(B) shall not apply if the plan provides that participants entitled to a distribution from the plan shall have a right to receive a distribution in cash.
An employer shall be deemed to satisfy the requirements of paragraph (1)(B) if it provides a put option for a period of at least 60 days following the date of distribution of stock of the employer and, if the put option is not exercised within such 60-day period, for an additional period of at least 60 days in the following plan year (as provided in regulations promulgated by the Secretary).
If an employer is required to repurchase employer securities which are distributed to the employee as part of a total distribution, the requirements of paragraph (1)(B) shall be treated as met if
For purposes of this paragraph, the term total distribution means the distribution within 1 taxable year to the recipient of the balance to the credit of the recipients account.
If an employer is required to repurchase employer securities as part of an installment distribution, the requirements of paragraph (1)(B) shall be treated as met if the amount to be paid for the employer securities is paid not later than 30 days after the exercise of the put option described in paragraph (4).
Paragraph (1)(A) shall not apply with respect to the portion of the participants account which the employee elected to have reinvested under section 401 (a)(28)(B) or subparagraph (B) or (C) of section 401 (a)(35).
A plan which otherwise meets the requirements of this section shall not be treated as failing to meet such requirements merely because it provides that
As reimbursement for the expenses of establishing the plan, the employer may withhold from amounts due the plan for the taxable year for which the plan is established (or the plan may pay) so much of the amounts paid or incurred in connection with the establishment of the plan as does not exceed the sum of
As reimbursement for the expenses of administering the plan, the employer may withhold from amounts due the plan (or the plan may pay) so much of the amounts paid or incurred during the taxable year as expenses of administering the plan as does not exceed the lesser of
A plan which otherwise meets the requirements of this section shall not be treated as failing to satisfy such requirements (or as failing to satisfy the requirements of section 401 (a) of this title or of section 403(c)(1) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) merely because of the return of a contribution (or a provision permitting such a return) if
Notwithstanding any other law or rule of law
if the withdrawn amounts were not matched by employee contributions or were in excess of the limitations of section 415. Any withdrawal described in the preceding sentence shall not be considered to violate the provisions of section 403(c)(1) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. For purposes of this subsection, the reference to the matching employee plan credit shall refer to such credit as in effect before the enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1984.
For purposes of this section
The term employer securities means common stock issued by the employer (or by a corporation which is a member of the same controlled group) which is readily tradable on an established securities market.
If there is no common stock which meets the requirements of paragraph (1), the term employer securities means common stock issued by the employer (or by a corporation which is a member of the same controlled group) having a combination of voting power and dividend rights equal to or in excess of
Noncallable preferred stock shall be treated as employer securities if such stock is convertible at any time into stock which meets the requirements of paragraph (1) or (2) (whichever is applicable) and if such conversion is at a conversion price which (as of the date of the acquisition by the tax credit employee stock ownership plan) is reasonable. For purposes of the preceding sentence, under regulations prescribed by the Secretary, preferred stock shall be treated as noncallable if after the call there will be a reasonable opportunity for a conversion which meets the requirements of the preceding sentence.
For purposes of this subsection, the term controlled group of corporations has the meaning given to such term by section 1563 (a) (determined without regard to subsections (a)(4) and (e)(3)(C) of section 1563).
For purposes of subparagraph (A), if the common parent owns directly stock possessing at least 50 percent of the voting power of all classes of stock and at least 50 percent of each class of nonvoting stock in a first tier subsidiary, such subsidiary (and all other corporations below it in the chain which would meet the 80 percent test of section 1563 (a) if the first tier subsidiary were the common parent) shall be treated as includible corporations.
For purposes of subparagraph (A), if the common parent owns directly stock possessing all of the voting power of all classes of stock and all of the nonvoting stock, in a first tier subsidiary, and if the first tier subsidiary owns directly stock possessing at least 50 percent of the voting power of all classes of stock, and at least 50 percent of each class of nonvoting stock, in a second tier subsidiary of the common parent, such second tier subsidiary (and all other corporations below it in the chain which would meet the 80 percent test of section 1563 (a) if the second tier subsidiary were the common parent) shall be treated as includible corporations.
Nonvoting common stock of an employer described in the second sentence of section 401 (a)(22) shall be treated as employer securities if an employer has a class of nonvoting common stock outstanding and the specific shares that the plan acquires have been issued and outstanding for at least 24 months.
No gain or loss shall be recognized to the taxpayer with respect to the transfer of employer securities to a tax credit employee stock ownership plan maintained by the taxpayer to the extent that such transfer is required under section 41 (c)(1)(B),4 or subparagraph (A) or (B) of section 48 (n)(1).[4]
A plan to which section 1042 applies and an eligible worker-owned cooperative (within the meaning of section 1042 (c)) shall provide that no portion of the assets of the plan or cooperative attributable to (or allocable in lieu of) employer securities acquired by the plan or cooperative in a sale to which section 1042 applies may accrue (or be allocated directly or indirectly under any plan of the employer meeting the requirements of section 401 (a))
For purposes of subparagraph (B), section 318 (a) shall be applied without regard to the employee trust exception in paragraph (2)(B)(i).
If a plan fails to meet the requirements of paragraph (1)
For purposes of this subsection
Paragraph (1)(A)(ii) shall not apply to any individual if
A person shall be treated as failing to meet the stock ownership limitation under paragraph (1)(B) if such person fails such limitation
The term nonallocation period means the period beginning on the date of the sale of the qualified securities and ending on the later of
A plan meets the requirements of this subsection if
The plan provides that, if the participant and, if applicable pursuant to sections 401 (a)(11) and 417, with the consent of the participants spouse elects, the distribution of the participants account balance in the plan will commence not later than 1 year after the close of the plan year
For purposes of this subsection, the account balance of a participant shall not include any employer securities acquired with the proceeds of the loan described in section 404 (a)(9) until the close of the plan year in which such loan is repaid in full.
The plan provides that, unless the participant elects otherwise, the distribution of the participants account balance will be in substantially equal periodic payments (not less frequently than annually) over a period not longer than the greater of
An employee stock ownership plan holding employer securities consisting of stock in an S corporation shall provide that no portion of the assets of the plan attributable to (or allocable in lieu of) such employer securities may, during a nonallocation year, accrue (or be allocated directly or indirectly under any plan of the employer meeting the requirements of section 401 (a)) for the benefit of any disqualified person.
If a plan fails to meet the requirements of paragraph (1), the plan shall be treated as having distributed to any disqualified person the amount allocated to the account of such person in violation of paragraph (1) at the time of such allocation.
For excise tax relating to violations of paragraph (1) and ownership of synthetic equity, see section 4979A.
For purposes of this subsection
The term nonallocation year means any plan year of an employee stock ownership plan if, at any time during such plan year
For purposes of subparagraph (A)
Solely for purposes of applying paragraph (5), this subparagraph shall be applied after the attribution rules of paragraph (5) have been applied.
For purposes of this subsection
The term disqualified person means any person if
In the case of a disqualified person described in subparagraph (A)(i), any member of such persons family with deemed-owned shares shall be treated as a disqualified person if not otherwise treated as a disqualified person under subparagraph (A).
For purposes of this paragraph, the term member of the family means, with respect to any individual
A spouse of an individual who is legally separated from such individual under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance shall not be treated as such individuals spouse for purposes of this subparagraph.
For purposes of paragraphs (3) and (4), in the case of a person who owns synthetic equity in the S corporation, except to the extent provided in regulations, the shares of stock in such corporation on which such synthetic equity is based shall be treated as outstanding stock in such corporation and deemed-owned shares of such person if such treatment of synthetic equity of 1 or more such persons results in
For purposes of this paragraph, synthetic equity shall be treated as owned by a person in the same manner as stock is treated as owned by a person under the rules of paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 318 (a). If, without regard to this paragraph, a person is treated as a disqualified person or a year is treated as a nonallocation year, this paragraph shall not be construed to result in the person or year not being so treated.
For purposes of this subsection
The term employee stock ownership plan has the meaning given such term by section 4975 (e)(7).
The term employer security has the meaning given such term by section 409 (l).
The term synthetic equity means any stock option, warrant, restricted stock, deferred issuance stock right, or similar interest or right that gives the holder the right to acquire or receive stock of the S corporation in the future. Except to the extent provided in regulations, synthetic equity also includes a stock appreciation right, phantom stock unit, or similar right to a future cash payment based on the value of such stock or appreciation in such value.
The Secretary shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this subsection.
The Secretary may, by regulation or other guidance of general applicability, provide that a nonallocation year occurs in any case in which the principal purpose of the ownership structure of an S corporation constitutes an avoidance or evasion of this subsection.