Get a grip on 409A

Compliance managers have a new executive compensation rule to comply with. In addition to your Sarbox burdens governing pay, you must now grapple with Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code, part of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. The goal was to curb the kind of abuses we've read about all too often. It covers a wide swath of pay issues and wields a mighty stick: Noncompliance could result in severe tax penalties. So you need to start worrying about this now. You basically have six months to make sure every pay element is either exempt or compliant. So you may want to raise this issue pronto and get your team together. Tips