Per Diem Rates from the U.S. General Services Administration

Search by city, state or ZIP code, or by clicking on the map. You can also use the new per diem tool to calculate trip allowances

Rates are set by fiscal year, effective October 1 each year. Find current rates in the continental United States ("CONUS Rates").

Per Diem Rates

Types of Qualified Retirement Plans

---

There are two basic kinds of qualified plans - defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans. Different rules apply to each. You can have more than one qualified plan, but your contributions to all the plans must not total more than the overall limits.

Defined Benefit Plan

A defined benefit plan promises a specific benefit amount at retirement. For example, $3,000 per month. To ensure retirees receive their promised benefit, the company must adequately fund the plan over the years. Actuaries are used to figure out the annual funding requirement.

Defined Contribution Plan

Under a defined contribution plan, no specific benefit amount is promised. The benefit you ultimately receive at retirement depends on:

• Contributions made to the plan, plus
• Earnings and gains on plan assets, minus
• Losses and expenses incurred by the plan

A defined contribution plan can be either:

• A Money Purchase Pension Plan, or
• A Profit-Sharing Plan

Money Purchase Pension Plan

Under a money purchase pension plan:

• Contributions are fixed.
• Contributions are based on compensation, regardless of business profits.

For example, if the plan calls for contributions of 10% of a participant's compensation, you must make those contributions without regard to whether you have a profit or loss.

Self-employed persons:

A self-employed person is a person who owns and operates an unincorporated business. Sole proprietors, partners in a partnership and members of a multi-member LLC which has not elected to be treated as a corporation for tax purposes, are self-employed.

You can make contributions on behalf of yourself only if you have net earnings (compensation) from self-employment in the trade or business for which the plan was set up. Your net earnings must be from your personal services, not from your investments.

If you have a net loss from self-employment, you can't make contributions for yourself for the year, even if you can contribute for employees based on their compensation.

Profit-Sharing Plan

Under a profit-sharing plan, contributions are geared toward profits. It's a plan for sharing business profits with employees. However, you don't have to actually make contributions out of profits to have a profit-sharing plan, and the plan doesn't have to provide a definite formula for figuring the profits to be shared.

However, if their is a formula, there must be systematic and substantial contributions and there must be a definite formula for:

• Allocating the contributions among the participants, and
• Distributing the accumulated funds to the employees after they reach a certain age, after a fixed number of years, or upon certain other occurrences.