Expert: Ed McFarland - 4/23/2007

Question
To avoid discrimination is it necessary to set up separate payrolls for similarly situated employees covered by differnt pension and welfare benefit plans. (ie. staff benefits for Pittsburgh employees versus staff benefits for NY employees with very differnt benefit/contribution schemes.

Answer
Not necessarily, realize that the point of the testing is to insure equitability for all employees.

If your participation levels are good and the ownership and highly comp are in line, testing shouldn't be a problem.

You should work with a 3rd party administrator, if the payroll is large enough, the penalties can be severe if it gets messed up.

Good luck.