4033 / What organizations can make tax sheltered annuities available to their employees?
An organization must be either a tax-exempt organization of one of the types described in IRC Section 501(c)(3) or a public school system. An organization in either of these two categories may make tax sheltered annuity benefits available to one or more of its full-time or part-time employees.
A participant must be an employee; persons working for an organization in a self-employed capacity generally are not eligible.1
A tax sheltered annuity also may be purchased for a duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister of a church by the minister himself if the minister is self-employed or by an organization that employs the minister and with respect to which the minister shares common religious bonds.2 This definition includes chaplains ( Q 4052).