A simplified employee pension (SEP) is a written plan that allows you to make deductible contributions toward your own and your employees' retirement without getting involved in more complex retirement plans. A corporation also can have a SEP and make deductible contributions toward its employees' retirement. But certain advantages available to qualified plans, such as the special tax treatment that may apply to lump-sum distributions, do not apply to SEPs.

Under a SEP, you make the contributions to a traditional individual retirement arrangement (called a SEP-IRA) set up for each eligible employee.

SEP-IRAs are set up for, at a minimum, each eligible employee. A SEP-IRA may have to be set up for a leased employee, but need not be set up for an excludable employee. For more information, see Publication 560.

Form 5305-SEP. You may be able to use Form 5305-SEP, Simplified Employee Pension-Individual Retirement Accounts Contribution Agreement, in setting up your SEP.

Contribution Limits

Contributions you make for a year to a common-law employee's SEP-IRA are limited to the lesser of $35,000 or 15% of the employee's compensation. Compensation generally does not include your contributions to the SEP, but does include certain elective deferrals unless you choose not to include them.

Annual compensation limit. You generally cannot consider the part of an employee's compensation over $170,000 when you figure your contribution limit for that employee.

More than one plan. If you also contribute to a defined contribution retirement plan (defined later), annual additions to all a participant's accounts are limited to the lesser of $35,000 or 25% of the participant's compensation. When you figure this limit, you must add your contributions to all defined contribution plans. A SEP is considered a defined contribution plan for this limit.

Contributions for yourself. The annual limits on your contributions to a common-law employee's SEP-IRA also apply to contributions you make to your own SEP-IRA.

Deduction Limit

The most you can deduct for employer contributions for a common-law employee is 15% of the compensation paid to him or her during the year from the business that has the plan.

Deduction of contributions for yourself. When figuring the deduction for employer contributions made to your own SEP-IRA, compensation is your net earnings from self-employment minus the following amounts.

1. The deduction for one-half your self-employment tax.
2. The deduction for contributions to your own SEP-IRA.

The deduction for contributions to your own SEP-IRA and your net earnings depend on each other. For this reason, you determine the deduction for contributions to your own SEP-IRA indirectly by reducing the contribution rate called for in your plan. Use the Rate Worksheet for Self-Employed shown under Qualified Plan, later, to figure the rate.

SEP and profit-sharing plan. If you also contributed to a qualified profit-sharing plan, you must reduce the 15% deduction limit for that plan by the allowable deduction for contributions to the SEP-IRAs of those participating in both the SEP plan and the profit-sharing plan.

SEP and another qualified plan. If you also contributed to any other type of qualified plan, treat the SEP as a separate profit-sharing plan when applying the overall 25% deduction limit described in section 404(h)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

If your SEP contribution is more than the deduction limit (nondeductible contribution), you can carry over and deduct the difference in later years. However, the contribution carryover, when combined with the contribution for the later year, is subject to the deduction limit for that year.

Employee contributions. Employees can also make contributions of up to $2,000 for 2001 to their SEP-IRAs independent of the employer's SEP contributions. However, the employee's deduction for IRA contributions may be reduced or eliminated because the employee is covered by an employer retirement plan (the SEP plan). See Publication 590 for details.

Salary Reduction Simplified Employee Pension (SARSEP)

An employer is no longer allowed to set up a SARSEP. However, participants in a SARSEP set up before 1997 (including employees hired after 1996) can continue to have their employer contribute part of their pay to the plan.

A SARSEP is a SEP set up before 1997 that included a salary reduction arrangement. Under the arrangement, employees can choose to have you contribute part of their pay to their SEP-IRAs rather than receive it in cash. This contribution is called an "elective deferral" because employees choose (elect) to set aside the money and the tax on the money is deferred until it is distributed.

This choice is available only if all the following requirements are met.

• The SARSEP was set up before 1997.
• At least 50% of the eligible employees choose the salary reduction arrangement.
• You had 25 or fewer eligible employees (or employees who would have been eligible if you had maintained a SEP) at any time during the preceding year.
• Each eligible highly compensated employee's deferral percentage each year is no more than 125% of the average deferral percentage (ADP) of all nonhighly compensated employees eligible to participate (the ADP test). See Publication 560 for the definition of a highly compensated employee and information on how to figure the deferral percentage.

Limit on elective deferrals. In general, the total income an employee can defer under a SARSEP and certain other elective deferral arrangements for 2001 is limited to the lesser of $10,500 or 15% of the employee's compensation (as defined in Publication 560). This limit applies only to amounts that reduce the employee's pay, not to any contributions from employer funds.

Employment taxes. Elective deferrals that meet the ADP test are not subject to income tax in the year of deferral, but they are included in wages for social security, Medicare, and federal unemployment (FUTA) tax.

Reporting SEP Contributions on Form W-2

Your contributions to an employee's SEP-IRA are excluded from the employee's income. Unless there are contributions under a salary reduction arrangement, do not include these contributions in your employee's wages on Form W-2 for income, social security, or Medicare tax purposes. Your SEP contributions under a salary reduction arrangement are included in your employee's wages for social security and Medicare tax purposes only.

Example. Jim's salary reduction arrangement calls for 10% of his salary to be contributed by his employer as an elective deferral to Jim's SEP-IRA. Jim's salary for the year is $30,000 (before reduction for the deferral). The employer did not choose to treat deferrals as compensation under the arrangement. To figure the deferral, the employer multiplies Jim's salary of $30,000 by 9.0909%, the reduced rate equivalent of 10%, to get the deferral of $2,727.27. (This method is the same one you, as a self-employed person, use to figure the contributions you make on your own behalf. See Rate Worksheet for Self-Employed under Qualified Plan.)

On Jim's Form W-2, his employer shows total wages of $27,272.73 ($30,000 - $2,727.27), social security wages of $30,000, and Medicare wages of $30,000. Jim reports $27,272.73 as wages on his individual income tax return.

If his employer does not make the choice explained above, Jim's deferral would be $3,000 ($30,000 x 10%). In this case, the employer uses the rate called for under the arrangement (not the reduced rate) to figure the deferral and the ADP test. On Jim's Form W-2, the employer shows total wages of $27,000 ($30,000 - $3,000), social security wages of $30,000, and Medicare wages of $30,000. Jim reports $27,000 as wages on his return.

In either case, the maximum deductible contribution would be $3,913.05 ($30,000 x 13.0435%).

More information. For more information on employer withholding requirements, see Publication 15.

For more information on SEPs, see Publication 560.

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