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If the requester will accept an email delivery of a pdf, consider furnishing a pdf of the whole Form 5500 annual report, including all schedules and the independent qualified public accountant’s report.

So I finally got up to this section of the bill. First, it's relatively speaking a small amount of money. Fidelity has a piece already on its website that says contributions are limited to $2,500 annually, but the way I read it that's not right, i.e. the account cannot exceed $2,500 at any point in time, I think. Second, it will be part of an ERISA pension plan, but it doesn't fit the definition of a pension benefit, so I think if they wanted, Peter, the DOL could probably regulate that the ESA is not a "benefit" for purposes of Section 206(d). But I don't see the problem either way, really, since again it's a small amount of money. True, there is a lot of complexity, but I think it's like the provision for matching student loan payments, i.e., it's an attempt to allow folks who aren't in a great position to save for retirement to be allowed to save in a way they otherwise would and still get the employer match on their money. That's the difference from a payroll deduction program. There is an assumption, I guess, that folks making, say, $40,000, will understand this and use it. Maybe. (I use $40,000 even though the provision is available to anyone who is not an HCE because in the space between $40k and the HCE cutoff most folks are able to make retirement savings contributions.) As far as administrability and employer take-up, my guess is that the folks who lobbied for this are providers that combine 401(k) with payroll services. This and other provisions of the bill really are only going to work for larger employers with tight integration between HRIS, payroll, and 401(k). While on the topic of the systems integration that will be needed by some of the SECURE 2.0 provisions, separate subject, but I mean, now the government is going to be contributing the saver's credit to the individual's 401(k) account or IRA. Sort of like a retirement stimmy.) One glitch that I see is that the provision itself does not seem to provide for treating the deferral into the ESA as an elective deferral for purposes of 401(k) testing. I think they do treat the employer's match on the amount as a matching contribution for 401(m), and I think the intent is that if the employee wants, the first 3% of their elective deferral or autodeferral will go into the ESA, so I think the intent is to count it for 401(k) nondiscrimination. Note that while I've finished reading thIS entire, very long section, once, I may have missed this. Also, I'm not through reading the rest of the bill, so the way ESA is treated for nondiscrimination testing may come up later in a seemingly unrelated provision. As a general note, on any of the above, or any other aspect of SECURE 2.0, I could be wrong. This is a really complex bill and not written with economy of expression in mind. Definitely a big move away from tax simplification. I remember a decade or so ago when one of the retirement initiatives in Congress was to simplify all types of DC's (401(k), 403(b), 457(b)) into a single type of tax-qualified savings plan and simplify other rules, e.g. distributions. This is definitely not that.

It seems to me that would be a violation of the exclusive benefit rule. Any use other than providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries, or defraying reasonable costs of plan administration, is not allowed.

That happens. When paid in EFTPS, the payment is to be marked for tax year 2021, even though paid in 2022. That's fine as long as it meets that particular entity's deposit deadline.

Never look for trouble. The simplest answer is often the best: if you can provide the page(s) from the audit report, do so. That is exactly what the SAR reference means. Peter is (as usual) correct: confirm that a PDF transmittal will be acceptable.

You don’t need both. And I’d require a notary because the key is protecting the plan, especially for spousal consent. The last thing you want is someone challenging a beneficiary designation claiming coercion, etc. Not this eliminates that situation, but the notary is bound by state law so a plan would have more reliance on the notarized document than one that is just signed by the PA. Is there more risk if someone at the employer notarizes it? Maybe. But state notarization laws could still provide protection for an innocent plan. And most, if not all, notaries are required to be bonded.

When payments are made through EFTPS you must indicate the form (945) and the tax year (you would indicate 2021) even though paid in 2022.) The IRS matches the 945 with payments in their EFTPS system. The IRS would apply the early 2022 deposit to the 2021 945 assuming the electronic payment was marked 2021 in EFTPS. Yes there is a penalty for late deposit. But deposit deadline varies - most of our plans are the 15th of the following month but some have a semi-weekly (not bi-weekly) deadline.

Luke Bailey, thank you for your observations. And for causing me to look up the word stimmy. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/stimmy-stimulus-words-were-watching About whether an ESA is a pension benefit: ERISA § 3(45) defines an ESA as “established and maintained as part of an individual account plan”, which ERISA § 3(34) defines as a pension plan. ERISA § 3(45)(A) further defines or describes an ESA as “a designated Roth account[.]” ERISA § 110(a) grants the Secretary of Labor power to “prescribe an alternative method for satisfying any requirement of this part with respect to any pension plan, or class of pension plans (including pension-linked emergency savings account features within a pension plan)[.]” ERISA § 404(c)(6) provides another situation in which a default investment is treated as a participant’s exercise of control. ERISA § 404(c)(6) applies “[f]or purposes of paragraph (1),” which refers to a pension plan. ERISA § 801(a)(1) provides that a sponsor of an individual-account plan “may include” an ESA in such a pension plan. ERISA § 801(c)(2)(A) commands that an ESA feature, if provided, “be included in the plan document of the individual account [pension] plan.” An ESA contribution may be a subject of a matching contribution that is a part of an individual-account pension plan. Under ERISA § 801(e), a plan with an ESA must allow, on a participant’s severance from employment (or the plan sponsor’s end of the ESA feature), a transfer from her ESA balance into another designated Roth account under the individual-account pension plan. An ESA may involve an automatic-contribution arrangement. These need ERISA § 514(e)’s (or ERISA § 802’s) preemption of States’ wage-payment laws. Although preemption can apply regarding a welfare-benefit plan, it’s not obvious that an ESA’s benefits are fairly described as “medical, surgical, or hospital care or benefits, or benefits in the event of sickness, accident, disability, death or unemployment, or vacation benefits, apprenticeship or other training programs, or day care centers, scholarship funds, or prepaid legal services[.]” See ERISA § 3(1)(A). Although Congress might have power to supersede State law regarding something that is neither kind of employee benefit, a court might find that a provision stated in part 5 or part 8 of subtitle B of title I of ERISA refers to an employee benefit ERISA § 3 describes. A plan’s administrator may consolidate notices about an ESA with notices under ERISA § 404(c)(5)(B) and ERISA § 514(e)(3). As I read ERISA § 206(d), that a pension plan includes an ESA feature does not alter the plan’s recognition of a qualified domestic relations order. But this might be no more burdensome regarding an ESA than for any other aspect of a plan that permits a QDRO distribution before the participant’s earliest retirement age. What’s different is that an ESA feature might bring in some participants who otherwise might have no account balance for a QDRO to reach.

I don''t know of any provision in the code that would let you use a Plan suspense account that way in a QPR or any qualified plan.