Pension and Other Benefits Plans

12 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

General Discussion Of Pension And Other Postretirement Benefits [Abstract]

Pension and Other Benefits

Note 12 – Pension and Other Benefit Plans

We are a participating employer in certain retirement and post-employment health care, life insurance, and other benefits sponsored by TMNA, an affiliate.  In connection with TMC’s planned consolidation of its three North American headquarters for manufacturing, sales and marketing, and finance operations to a single new headquarters facility in Plano, Texas, the sponsorship of these benefits was transferred from TMS to TMNA in fiscal 2017.  Costs of each plan are generally allocated to us by TMNA based on relative payroll costs associated with participating or eligible employees at TMCC as compared to the plan as a whole.

Defined Benefit Plan

Prior to January 1, 2015, our employees were generally eligible to participate in the Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. Pension Plan (the “Pension Plan”) commencing on the first day of the month following hire and were vested after 5 years of continuous employment.  Effective January 1, 2015, the Pension Plan was closed to employees first employed or reemployed on or after such date.  

Benefits payable under this non-contributory defined benefit pension plan are based, generally, upon the employees' years of credited service (up to a maximum of 25 years), the highest average annual compensation (as defined in the plan) for any 60 consecutive month period out of the last 120 months of employment (the “Applicable Years”), and one-half of eligible bonus/gift payments for the Applicable Years (recalculated to determine the annual average of such amount), reduced by a percentage of the estimated amount of social security benefits.

Costs allocated to TMCC for our employees in the Pension Plan and certain other non-qualified plans were $5 million, $11 million and $4 million for fiscal 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Defined Contribution Plan

Employees meeting certain eligibility requirements, as defined in the plan documents, may participate in the Toyota Motor North America, Inc. Retirement Savings Plan.  Under this plan, eligible employees may elect to contribute between 1 percent and 30 percent of their eligible pre-tax compensation, subject to federal tax regulation limits.  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. Generally, contributions are funded bi-weekly by payments to the plan’s administrator.  Certain employees hired on or after January 1, 2015, may be eligible to receive an additional Company contribution to the plan calculated based on their age and compensation.

TMCC employer contributions to the savings plan were $10 million, $8 million and $7 million for fiscal 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Other Post-Retirement Benefit Plans

Employees are generally eligible to participate in other post-retirement benefits sponsored by TMNA which provide certain health care and life insurance benefits to eligible retired employees.  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 $10 million, $13 million and $13 million for fiscal 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.