Profit Sharing Law and Legal Definition
Profit sharing is an incentive plan that distributes a portion of an organization's profits to its employees. The company contributes a portion of its pre-tax profits to a pool that will be distributed among eligible employees. The amount distributed to each employee may be weighted by the employee's base salary so that employees with higher base salaries receive a slightly higher amount of the shared pool of profits. Generally this is done on an annual basis.
A plan may qualify under federal laws and regulations for tax deductibility even if the employer does not have current accumulated profits, provided there is a definite formula for allocating plan contributions among participants and their beneficiaries for a fixed period, upon the attainment of a stated age, or upon an event such as the participant's retirement, disability, death or severance of employment. Calculations of profit vary by employer and accounting practices.
Additional Definitions
Profit Sharing
"Profit sharing" is a type of compensation paid to employees by companies. Payment of a profit sharing bonus to non-management employees typically takes place at the discretion of the company and does not constitute an entitlement—although if it is paid routinely and year after year, employees may come to count on it as part of their compensation. Profit sharing bonuses are treated as income for tax purposes upon receipt unless made to deferred compensation plans.
As part of its National Compensation Survey, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects data on cash profit sharing bonus payments to employees. Data for 2005 indicated that 5 percent of all workers had access to such bonuses. The BLS data may actually understate the prevalence of profit sharing because it also reports "end-of-year bonus" and "holiday bonus" categories, both of which are higher, 11 and 10 percent of workers receive such bonuses respectively. Many small businesses pay such bonuses at the end of the year and without labeling them as "profit sharing"—but the bonuses are only paid in good years. This interpretation of the BLS data is borne out by the fact that bonuses labeled "profit sharing" were available to 4 percent of workers employed by small firms (under 100 employees) while 6 percent of workers in larger organizations had access to such bonuses. But 13 percent of workers in small establishments had access to end-of-year and holiday bonuses (13 percent in each category) whereas only 7 percent of workers in larger organizations had access to end-of-year bonuses and 6 percent to holiday bonuses. If all three categories are combined, it would appear that small businesses used this mechanism as a form of employee recognition more than large businesses.
BLS data also indicate that profit sharing bonuses (excluding end-of year and holiday bonuses) were more likely available to blue collar workers (7 percent versus the average of 5 percent), full timers (6 percent), unionized workers (7 percent), and higher wage workers ($15 an hour and higher, 7 percent) than other categories. Eleven percent of workers in goods producing and 3 percent of workers in services producing industries had access to such bonuses.
TYPES OF PROFIT-SHARING PLANS
Companies use any number of different formulas to calculate the distribution of profits to their employees and have a variety of rules and regulations regarding eligibility. In general, however, two types of plans prevail. The first takes the form of cash bonuses under which employees receive a profit-sharing distribution at the end of the year. The main drawback to cash distribution plans is that this income is immediately subject to income tax. This also holds if the bonus is paid out in the form of company stock.
To avoid immediate taxation, companies are permitted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to set up qualified deferred profit-sharing plans. Under a deferred plan, the second type of profit sharing, profit-sharing distributions are held in individual accounts for each employee. Employees are not allowed to withdraw from their profit-sharing accounts except under certain, well-defined conditions. As long as employees do not have easy access to the funds, money in the accounts is not taxed and may earn tax-deferred interest. BLS data reported on this form of profit sharing do not show extent of corporate participation or the number of employees eligible overall.
Under qualified deferred profit-sharing plans, employees may be given a range of investment choices for their accounts, including stocks or mutual funds. Such choices are common when the accounts are managed by outside investment firms. It is becoming less common for companies to manage their own profit-sharing plans due to the fiduciary duties and liabilities associated with them. A 401(k) account is a common type of deferred profit-sharing plan, with several unique features. For example, employees are allowed to voluntarily contribute a portion of their salary, before taxes, to their 401(k) account. The company may decide to match a certain percentage of such contributions. In addition, many 401(k) accounts have provisions that enable employees to borrow money under certain conditions.
OTHER ISSUES CONCERNING PROFIT-SHARING PLANS
Deferred profit-sharing plans are a type of defined contribution plan. Such employee benefit plans provide an individual account for each employee. Individual accounts grow as contributions are made to them. Funds in the accounts are invested and may earn interest or show capital appreciation. Depending on each employee's investment choices, their account balances may be subject to increases or decreases reflecting the current value of their investments.
The amount of future benefits that employees will receive from their profit-sharing accounts depends entirely on their account balance. The amount of their account balance will include the employer's contributions from profits, any interest earned, any capital gains or losses, and possibly forfeitures from other plan participants. Forfeitures result when employees leave the company before they are vested, and the funds in their accounts are distributed to the remaining plan participants.
Employees are said to be vested when they become eligible to receive the funds in their accounts. Immediate vesting means that they have the right to funds in their account as soon as their employer makes a profit-sharing distribution. Companies may establish different time requirements before employees become fully vested. Under some deferred profit-sharing plans employees may start out partially vested, perhaps being entitled to only 25 percent of their account, then gradually become fully vested over a period of years. A company's vesting policy is written into the plan document and is designed to motivate employees and reduce employee turnover.
In order for a deferred profit-sharing plan to gain qualified status from the IRS, it is important that funds in employee accounts not be readily accessible to employees. Establishing a vesting period is one way to limit access; employees have rights to the funds in their accounts only when they become partially or fully vested. Another way to limit access is to establish strict rules for making payments from employees accounts, such as upon retirement, death, permanent disability, or termination of employment. Less strict rules may allow for withdrawals under certain conditions, such as financial hardship or medical emergencies. Nevertheless, whatever rules a company may adopt for its profit-sharing plan, such rules are subject to IRS approval and must meet IRS guidelines.
The IRS also limits the amount that employers may contribute to their profit-sharing plans. The precise amount is subject to change by the IRS, but 1996 tax rules allowed companies to contribute a maximum of 15 percent of an employee's salary to his or her profit-sharing account. If a company contributed less than 15 percent in one year, it may exceed 15 percent by the difference in a subsequent year to a maximum of 25 percent of an employee's salary.
Companies may determine the amount of their profit-sharing contributions in one of two ways. One is by a set formula that is written into the plan document. Such formulas are typically based on the company's pretax net profits, earnings growth, or some other measure of profitability. Companies then plug the appropriate numbers into the formula and arrive at the amount of their contribution to the profit-sharing pool. Rather than using a set formula, companies may decide to contribute a discretionary amount each year. That is, the company's owners or directors—at their discretion—decide what an appropriate amount would be.
Once the amount of the company's contribution has been determined, different plans provide for different ways of allocating the funds among the company's employees. The employer's contribution may be translated into a percentage of the company's total payroll, with each employee receiving the same percentage of his or her annual pay. Other companies may use a sliding scale based on length of service or other factors. Profit-sharing plans also spell out precisely which employees are eligible to receive profit-sharing distributions. Some plans may require employees to reach a certain age or length of employment, for example, or to work a certain minimum number of hours during the year.
Although profit sharing offers some attractive benefits to small business owners, it also includes some potential pitfalls. It is important for small business owners who wish to share their success with employees to set up a formal profit sharing plan with the assistance of an accountant or financial advisor. Otherwise, both the employer and the employees may not receive the tax benefits they desire from the plan. Also, small business owners should avoid making mentions of profit sharing or stock ownership to motivate employees during the heat of battle. Such mentions could be construed as promises and lead to lawsuits if the employees do not receive the benefits they feel they deserved.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blencoe, Gregory J. "Utilizing Profit Sharing to Motivate Employees: The Logic Behind Sharing a Piece of the Pie." Business Credit. September 2000.
Dietderich, Andrew. "Survey: Pay based on performance gains ground." Crain's Detroit Business. 3 April 2006.
"In Depth Profit Sharing: Share Peace of Mind." Employee Benefits. 12 January 2006.
Jones, Dan. "How Safe is Your Retirement Plan?" Paraplegia News. December 2005.
"US: Chrysler to profit-share around $650 per worker." just-auto.com. 17 February 2006.
U.S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in Private Industry in the United States, March 2005. August 2005.
Hillstrom, Northern Lights
updated by Magee, ECDI
Legal Definition list
Related Legal Terms
- Abnormal Profits
- Accounting for Profits
- Accumulated Earnings and Profits
- Adjusted Underwriting Profit
- Assessment for Profits
- Attorney General's Equitable Sharing Program
- Central Nonprofit Agency
- Charitable or Nonprofit Activity (Gaming Law)
- Community-Based Nonprofit Housing Developer [Banks & Banking]
- Comparable Profit Method (CPM)
