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Safe harbor, Top Heavy, multiple plans and a Union


Craig Garner

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I am trying to determine Top Heavy (TH) obligations in a safe harbor (SH) plan for an employer who has multiple plans.

The employer (ER) has both union employees and non-union employees. The ER contributes to 2 union plans (DC & DB) under a collective bargaining agreement. The ER also sponsors a "frozen" ESOP plan in which both union and non-union employees are eligible. And, the ER has a safe harbor 401k, using a SH match formula, for non-union employees. Historically, only non-union employees have been Key employees. Last year was the first year in which a union employee personally owned enough company stock (outside of the ESOP) and earned enough salary to be a Key employee. Based on my understanding of the TH regs, an ER must aggregate all plans in which there is a Key employee. And, based on my understanding, this would include multiemployer, collectively bargained plans that include a Key employee. To confuse matters a little, the regs (1.416-1, T-3) seem to indicate that all of the plans must be aggregated to determine TH status, BUT the TH rules do not apply to union employees if benefits are subject to collective bargaining. So, I'm assuming that even if the plans are TH, I do not need to provide TH minimum benefits to any union employees, only non-union employees. Since the ESOP is frozen, and all of my non-union employees are in the SH plan, I am focused on TH obligations, if any, in the SH plan. 

Here's my first problem, the union plans do not have any sub-accounting. The account balances/accrued benefits for union employees include amounts earned/accrued with OTHER employers. Logically, it seems wrong to use this data, as it could skew the TH results in one direction or another. The Internal Revenue Manual says an employer can use a simplified method to compute TH ratios (overestimate Key, underestimate non-key). Let's say we do this, resulting in the plans being TH (on purpose!). QUESTION: If the plans are TH, and I do not need to provide TH benefits to union employees, and my non-union employees are participating in a SH match plan, do I have any obligation to provide additional TH benefits to non-union employees who don't get any SH match??? The ER is not making any additional contributions to the SH plan other than SH match. But the ER is making additional contributions to other plans, namely the 2 union plans: union plans that are part of the required TH aggregation group, but benefit employees who are not required to get TH benefits. 

For the ultimate conservative approach, could I suggest the SH plan switch to a 3% NEC? Or suggest that they simply provide all non-union EE's with a minimum 3% benefit each year?

I'm just not sure how I could ever prove that these plans, in aggregate, are TH or not TH. I'm wondering if the best approach is to simply assume the plans ARE TH. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated. Thank you.  

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