Your years of service include only periods during which your employer was a qualified employer. Your plan administrator can tell you whether or not your employer was qualified during all your periods of service.

Generally, you cannot count service for any employer other than the one who maintains your 403(b) account.

If you are a church employee, treat all of your years of service with related church organizations as years of service with the same employer. For more information about church employees, see chapter 5.

If you are a self-employed minister, your years of service include full and part years in which you have been treated as employed by a tax-exempt organization that is a qualified employer.

Your years of service cannot be less than one year. If at the end of your tax year, you have less than one year of service (including service in any previous years), figure your limit on annual additions as if you have one year.

When figuring years of service, figure each year individually and then add the individual years of service to determine your total years of service, ending with the year for which the limit on annual additions is being calculated. The total years of service will be used when figuring your limit on annual additions.

To figure your years of service, you must analyze each year individually and determine whether you worked full time for the full year or something other than full time. When determining whether you worked full time or something other than full time, you use your employer's annual work period as the standard.

Your employer's annual work period is the usual amount of time an individual working full time in a specific position is required to work. Generally, this period of time is expressed in days, weeks, months, or semesters and can span two calendar years.

You can use any method that reasonably and accurately reflects the amount of work required. For example, if you are a teacher, you can use the number of hours of classroom instruction as a measure of the amount of work required.

In determining whether positions with the same employer are the same, consider all of the facts and circumstances concerning the positions, including the work performed, the methods by which pay is determined, and the descriptions (or titles) of the positions.

If no one else works for your employer in the same position, compare your work with the work normally required of others who held the same position with similar employers or similar positions with your employer.

A full year of service for a particular position means the usual annual work period of anyone employed full time in that general type of work at that place of employment.

If, during a year, you were employed full time for only part of your employer's annual work period, figure the fraction for that year as follows.

If, during a year, you were employed part time for the employer's entire annual work period, you figure the fraction for that year as follows.

If, during any year, you were employed part time for only part of your employer's annual work period, you figure your fraction for that year by multiplying two fractions.

Figure the first fraction as though you had worked full time for part of the annual work period. The fraction is as follows.

Figure the second fraction as though you had worked part time for the entire annual work period. The fraction is as follows.

Once you have figured these two fractions, multiply them together to determine the fraction representing your partial year of service for the year.

Floyd has been employed with his current employer for less than 15 years. He is not eligible for the special 15-year increase. Therefore, his limit on elective deferrals for 2004 is $13,000, as shown in Table 4-2.