To rein in employer abuses, Congress enacted tough new restrictions on nonqualified deferred compensation in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. The Section generally provides that deferred compensation is immediately taxable unless the arrangement under which it is deferred meets certain requirements.
The IRS has issued a substantial amount of guidance interpreting the requirements of Code Sec. 409A. The much-anticipated final regulations were issued on April 10, 2007, and are applicable for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2008. In addition to Code Sec. 409A, 409A Sourcebook: Code, Regulations and Selected Guidance collects in a single volume the most important portions of the 409A guidance, including various Notices, the preambles to the proposed regulations and the final regulations, and the complete text of the final regulations.