- 14 - the balance of petitioner's separate account. Thus, petitioners argue that, pursuant to section 414(k), petitioner's separate account in the Annuity Savings Fund should be treated as a defined contribution plan. Petitioners further argue that this defined contribution component constituted a profit-sharing plan, and that the Transfer Refund was paid from such profit-sharing plan. Finally, petitioners argue that because profit-sharing plans are not aggregated with pension plans under section 402(e)(4)(C), petitioner received the balance to her credit from a profit-sharing plan when she received the Transfer Refund. We have carefully considered petitioners' contention, and we reject it for two reasons. First, the Retirement System did not provide a benefit based "partly on the balance of the separate account" of petitioner under section 414(k). As discussed earlier, in order to satisfy the "separate account" requirement in section 414(k), petitioner's separate account must have maintained the characteristics of a defined contribution plan; namely, the allocation of investment gains and losses to petitioner's separate account. Here, the Annuity Savings Fund held petitioner's accumulated contributions. Pursuant to Maryland law, petitioner's account in the Annuity Savings Fund was credited with "regular interest" annually. Md. Ann. Code, art. 73B, sec. 14(2)(c) (1988). We do not think that the crediting ofPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Next
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