Less than 20 hours a week excluded

[austin3515]

Ees with under 20 hours per week were excluded from participation, butt he document did not indicate that they were excluded.  Have people tried to do VCPs for this to amend retroactively to exclude?  

[Mike Preston]

This is but one scenario of many that are similar.  Success through EPCRS depends on the employer establishing employee expectations consistent with exclusion.

[Degrand]

Your bigger issue is that an employees with 19.25 hours a week would have 1000 hours during a plan year. They would participate in the Plan.  Also, would an employee become a participant if he/she works 21 hours during one of the week?  

 

[Flyboyjohn]

Yes we were successful with an anonymous VCP for a 403(b) plan where the "good faith" 2009 plan document failed to exclude the <20 hour/week employees but sponsor could demonstrate consistent application of the exclusion.

Of course we were aided by the argument that the 2009 "good faith" document did not have to be perfect despite the Service's published position that eligibility errors could not be "corrected" when the preapproved 403(b) document was executed.