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Legal Topic: - To read our latest Arbitration award - click here - To read the latest on Pensions Loans - click here
State PBA President Anthony Wieners has announced that
New Jersey Congressman William Pascrell Jr., who has been working with
the NJ State PBA on this issue, has advised that the President Wieners wishes to thank Congressman Pascrell, who is a member of the Federal Committee on Ways and Means, for his non-stop effort in leading the charge to bring about this extension and protect our members. “Without this intervention by Congressman Pascrell, the welfare of our members and the Law Enforcement agencies they work for would be in serious jeopardy” President Wieners said today. The IRS Notice (above) announcing the extension can be downloaded by clicking here State PBA activity on IRS rule regarding Public Safety Employee retirement age.
The Director of the Division of Pensions has written a letter to State PBA President Wieners that makes two critical findings based on their review of the IRS rule on retirements at age 50. First, the Division feels strongly that the IRS rule on “normal retirement ages” will not affect current PFRS law because of the nature of the retirement system and its relationship to language in the rule. Second, the Division has noted that the plan will not go into effect for government retirement plans until July 1, 2009 and therefore the State would not be impacted by the January 1, 2009 implementation date. We are continuing our efforts on this matter and will advise you as more updates become available. for the full letter - click here 07 OCTOBER 2008 ALL MEMBERS: I would like to take this opportunity to update you on a very serious issue that impacts the retirement options currently provided to us and to all public employees in the nation. As you may be aware, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has adopted regulations that would prohibit any public safety employee in a State legislated pension system from retiring before the age of 50 (other employees impacted by the rule have a higher retirement age). The regulation is slated to go into effect on January 1, 2009. There is currently no retirement age for a member of PFRS to qualify for a pension and this is the first time the IRS has attempted to mandate such a restriction. The State would be required to amend its pension laws or face going out of compliance with IRS tax law. It would appear that this regulation has caught the New Jersey Division of Pensions off guard and the State is not prepared to address the IRS regulations should they be enacted in 2009. The State PBA upon learning of this problem has been actively seeking solutions to it. Specifically, this morning we held a meeting with Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. in his office in Paterson. Congressman Pascrell, in addition to being a solid supporter of the State PBA, is a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. The Committee is responsible for writing the nation’s tax code and has oversight over the IRS. Today’s meeting was attended by PFRS Trustees John Sierchio, Wayne Hall and Vince Foti; PBA Legal Counsel Bob Fagella; Dave Jones, President of the STFA; Dennis Hallion, President of the Trooper NCO Association; Bill Lavin, President of the FMBA and myself and we discussed the regulations and its negative impact on our rights as well as the costly impact to public safety and the taxpayers of the State. Attached is a letter that was sent by me to the Congressman and the State Congressional delegation detailing our concerns. We have requested that the regulation be delayed indefinitely in order to seek a change in language impacting public safety employees. A formal request to delay the rule has already been made but the IRS has not yet acted upon it. If the IRS rejects a request to delay we will be seeking either federal legislation to overrule the IRS Regulation or a legal remedy challenging the regulations as a violation of our constitutional rights. I will be keeping you up to date on this matter as we learn more in the next few weeks. - Anthony Wieners, President 06 October - Letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman 08 October - New IRS Rules on Normal Retirement Age 01 October - Letter to United States Congressman William Pascrell, Jr.
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