Yesterday the IRS published its long-awaited final Treasury regulations under Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code ("409A"), all 397 pages. These regulations are significant because employers with arrangements and plans governed by 409A must have both operational and document compliance by December 31, 2007. This means arrangements and plans that were previously reviewed and/or amended to comply with the proposed regulations will have to again be reviewed to determine whether a subsequent amendment is necessary by December 31, 2007. The arrangements and plans in question include traditional non-qualified deferred compensation plans, bonus arrangements, certain equity based arrangements, employment agreements, severance arrangements and more.  The final regulations can be found here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of the following attorneys specializing in compensation and employee benefits: 

LOS ANGELES
David Paik – (213) 617-4196
Martin Smith – (213) 617-5490
Michael Chan – (213) 617-5537

NEW YORK
John Bonn – (212) 332-3800

SAN FRANCISCO
Larry Goldberg – (415) 774-2927
Lynn DuBois – (415) 774-3214