Pension and Other Benefits

12 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Pension and Other Benefits [Abstract]

Pension and Other Benefits

Note 12 – Pension and Other Benefit Plans

We are a participating employer in certain retirement and post-retirement health care, life insurance, and other benefits sponsored by Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (“TMS”), an affiliate. TMS allocates costs to us based on relative payroll costs associated with participating or eligible employees at TMCC compared to the plan as a whole.

Defined Benefit Plan

Our employees are generally eligible to participate in the Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. Pension Plan sponsored by TMS commencing on the first day of the month following hire and are vested after 5 years of continuous employment. Benefits payable under this non-contributory defined benefit pension plan are based upon the employees' years of credited service, the highest average compensation for any 60 consecutive month period out of the last 120 months of employment, and one-half of the highest average fiscal year bonus for the 60 consecutive month period in the last 120 months of employment used to calculate highest average compensation, reduced by an estimated amount of social security benefits.

Retirement plan service costs allocated to TMCC for our employees in the TMS pension plan were $7 million, $9 million and $7million forfiscal 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Defined Contribution Plan

Employees are also eligible to participate in the Toyota Motor Sales Savings Plan sponsored by TMS. Participants may elect to contribute up to 30 percent of their base pay on a pre-tax basis, subject to Internal Revenue Code limitations. We match 66 2/3 cents for each dollar the participant contributes, up to 6 percent of base pay. Participants are vested 25 percent each year with respect to our contributions and are fully vested after four years.

Employer contributions to the Toyota Savings Plan were $7 million, $7 million and $6 million forfiscal 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Other Post-Employment Benefits

In addition, employees are generally eligible to participate in various health and life and other post-retirement benefits sponsored by TMS. In order to be eligible for these benefits, the employee must retire with at least ten years of service and in some cases be at least 55 years of age.

Other post-retirement benefit costs allocated to TMCC were $13 million, $11 million and $9 million forfiscal 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.