Pension and Other Benefits Plans

12 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

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 TMS, an affiliate.  Costs of each plan are generally allocated to us by TMS 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 Plans sponsored by TMS commencing on the first day of the month following hire and were vested after 5 years of continuous employment.  Effective January 1, 2015, TMS-sponsored benefit pension plans were 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.

Pension costs allocated to TMCC for our employees in the TMS pension plan were $11 million, $4 million and $15 million for fiscal 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

Defined Contribution Plan

Employees meeting certain eligibility requirements, as defined in the plan documents, may participate in the Toyota Motor Sales Savings Plan sponsored by TMS.  Under these plans, 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. The contributions are funded bi-weekly by payments to the plans’ administrator.  Certain employees hired on or after January 1, 2015, may be eligible to receive an annually funded Company contribution to the plans calculated based on their age and compensation.

TMCC employer contributions to the TMS savings plan were $8 million, $7 million and $7 million for fiscal 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

Other Post-Retirement Benefit Plans

Employees are generally eligible to participate in other post-retirement benefits sponsored by TMS 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 $13 million, $13 million and $16 million for fiscal 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.