And the Nerds Cheer?

Secant, tangent, cosine, sine. Three point one four one five nine!

Simple real example:

Dentist and wife are eligible as are three employees.  It is safe harbor match plan.  One employee terminated with <501 hours.  We are allocating PS only to the doctor and the two ongoing employees to meet 410(b) and in a uniform integrated amount to pass 401(a)(4).  The dentist prefers to cover the terminated employee which he can as a class-allocated plan with no allocation conditions and this employee only had $2,000 in wages.  This would mean full PS to 2 NHCS and top heavy to the 3rd employee who is still working.  The result is significantly less cost.

My real question is with the testing software - I thought those who terminated with <501 hours were excluded from testing.  That would mean only 2 eligible NHCEs in the testing and only one would have to be covered to pass ratio %, but the testing reports say fail if we only cover one.  The employee is coded correctly in the software application with just a few hours and a termination date.

Comments? Thanks

Plan allowed insurance and the participant was paying premiums from his account. Participant decided he no longer wanted the insurance and contacted the insurance provider and cancelled the policy.    The provider sent him a check for the Cash Surrender Value. The insurance company was not responsible for the 1099R.

The Cash Surrender Value was $56,000. The plan issued a 1099R to the participant for the full Cash Surrender Value.  The participant stated the insurance company told him he would only pay tax on the gain of the policy - difference between the Surrender Value and the investment in the policy, this was approximately $9,356.

Since the premiums were paid with pre tax dollars, isn't the total Cash Surrender Value taxable income?  I am not sure the insurance company realized this was held under a 401(k) Plan vs a private policy.

Thoughts

Thanks.

We have a plan that has a 5% PS contribution.  Many years ago they permitted employees to receive the 5% as cash instead of the PS.  They eliminated that option but we still have a handful of employees still receiving the cash instead of the PS.    Would this be permitted?  Would that make the entire ps a coda even though they no longer have the option to take as cash?

Hi

Plan terminated as of 12/31/2022 (PBGC).

PVAB as of 12/31/2022 was 710k (based on 417e rates), just calculated as just got the census. Based on this the plan was 200k underfunded due to aggressive investing.

Ran the termination numbers as of 6/30/2023 and now PVAB dropped to 450k, a 36% drop. Believe it or not 5% GAR94 yielded higher PVAB than 417e.

Initial estimated calculations done in 2022 showed approximately 25-28% drop.

Now I have plan that is suddenly over funded by possibly 75-100k.

I did the 1% safe harbor allocation method for the excess but the results were terrible (owner got only 35%)

Current plan document states reversion to company for any excess.

I believe one of the following can be done rather than reverting to company:

• Generate a spreadsheet with using 1% of average compensation and allocate the excess pro-rata based on PVAB's as of 6/30/2023. This can be done now with an amendment.
• Make an amendment now (after termination date) and allow the excess to be transferred to a qualified replacement plan.
• Undo the freeze, create a new benefit structure (possibly discriminatory allocation and test it). Restart the termination sometime in August and distribute the assets prior to 12/31/2023.
• Amend the plan to have a higher mortality table where everyone will get a higher PVAB
• Amend the plan to change the look back month - August 2022 would yield much higher results

Anything else?

Any comments/suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you

I was automatically enrolled in a 401k by my employer without my consent, and after I filed a form to opt-out of their automatic enrollment program. What can I do to get the money they deducted from paychecks returned?

A former employee had been receiving annual payments from her NQDC plan, and we were issuing her W-2s. We just learned the former employee died a couple years ago. The spouse has continued to cash her checks. How do we correct the tax reporting from W-2 to the deceased former employee to 1099-MISC to her spouse? 

Self-employed person/1099 contractor has a DB plan. The person contracted with one employer which no longer needed the services. The person provided no services and received no income for the year.

The plan document defines credited service as elapsed time. Does this person get credited service or not? Compensation was zero so we aren't concerned for benefit accruals but need to know if service can be credited for 415 service and participation.

My thought is that because the person did not provide any services that no service should be credited. I think this is different than if services were performed but expenses exceeded revenue resulted in zero net income/compensation, in which case I think you could/should credit service. 

I looked in the regulations but could not discern an answer, nor could I locate guidance elsewhere. Is my thinking correct/reasonable or flawed. Also, this is more than a one-year situation.

Thanks

An Employer is in the process of establishing a new single employer plan (401(k)) effective in 2023.  They will spin off (not terminate) from a PEP that they are currently in and transfer the assets from the PEP into the new plan.  They do not have a safe harbor provision in place in the PEP, but they would like to add a safe harbor provision to the new plan for 2023.  Is this permissible?  How would the ADP testing work for 2023, would they need to test separately in the PEP for the short period and correct via refunds / QNEC (assuming the test fails for the short period), or are we permitted to test the entire year under the new plan (and the safe harbor provisions, assuming this can be added to the new plan in 2023)?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

I started a 401K plan in 2000, stopped contribution in 2011 because of job change; was married in 2005.  I just received copy of QDRO and they are asking for 50% and it is not a correct calculation.  What can I file to correct the order?

Can anyone tell me what impact (if any) changing from a C corp to and S corp might have on the company's profit sharing plan.  The owner is the only employee.  

If there are no HCE's who are left participating in a DB/DC combo plan (an odd situation, I know, and it may just be a 1 year aberration), how would that impact the Gateway?  Is it still the 7.5% or can that be reduced dramatically?  The employer is going through some turmoil and change over so just want to make sure what we can/can't do.

Thanks in advance

My apologies if this has been answered before.  I saw one post from 2018 that was not very conclusive.  

Is it possible for a 403(b) plan to allow for prevailing wage contributions in the 403(b) plan, as is possible in a 401(k)?  So the fringe benefit portion of the prevailing wage, if not used for any other purpose, would be deposited in the 403(b) rather than given out as cash.

I'm assuming if it is allowed it would be subject to the availability in the plan document and the service providers limitations.

Thanks very much.

Hello,

We've got a plan with 0 hours required for eligibility and 1,000 hour required for benefit.  1 owner that works 1,000 hours and 2 employees that don't work 1,000 hours.  Are we going to have testing issues?  Are one of these employees going to need to benefit?

Thanks!

Hi! I'm hoping that I can get some experts to weigh in here. I'm excited about the new process for determining if a plan is subject to an audit starting with the 2023 plan year - it's now looking at participants with a balance - yay! However, it leads me to wonder if the definition for large vs small plans will be extended to the DOL safe harbor regarding timing of employee contributions for small plans. I looked at the federal register and it doesn't specifically link to 5500 status, it only states "100 or more participants". 

What are your thoughts on this? I'm thinking that unfortunately, we are going to have a larger difference of small vs large now between the SH rule and the 5500 filing than in the past [since 100 ppt filers did not have to file a large 5500 until they hit 120]. Thank you!

Can a participant who inherited an IRA from her late spouse roll over the IRA into the 401(k) plan in which she participates? The plan allows rollovers from all permissible sources.  Can she then take a loan from these rolled over assets, given the plan allows loans from all sources?

Can the 3-year pre-normal retirement age catch-up apply to allow employer nonelective contributions in excess of the applicable dollar amount ($22,500 in 2023)?

Thanks in advance if anyone can help me with this.

My company farms out the payroll to a very large payroll company. Our last pay period of 2022 went from 12/19/2022 to 1/1/2023. 1/1/23 was a holiday and since it fell on a Sunday, was celebrated the following Monday and went on the next paycheck (no one worked that day at all). Which means all earnings on that final 2022 paycheck issued on 1/6/23 were earned in 2022. 

For some reason, this payroll company used the new year (2023) HSA deduction amounts that each employee selected in November to begin with the new year for 2023 earnings instead of the 2022 HSA deduction amounts for each employee. (This is the amount each employee contributed to their HSA account each paycheck)

I cannot get them to correct this or show me any proof that they are allowed to withhold 2023 HSA deduction amounts on 2022 earnings

So I guess my question is- Is it legal to use the following years HSA deduction amount on the previous years earnings if that previous years check is distributed in the following year, but contains no following year earnings?

I hope that makes sense and thanks again.

An employee had withholdings done as pre-tax instead of Roth and didn't notice until they saw their W-2.    I'm sure Ascensus will just say have the plan sponsor give us instructions and we will move the contributions and earnings (loss actually) from pretax to Roth.

Is there a prescribed fix for this?  Seems fixing payroll is the only reasonable correction.  Not sure what else would be equitable.  

Thank you.

Buyer is purchasing Seller in a stock transaction.  Seller has agreed to terminate Seller's 401(k) Plan immediately before the closing.

After closing, Seller will perform final testing and make any necessary refunds.  Is it possible to refund through payroll so the participant's W-2 is accurate, or must it be handled by 1099?

For example:  Before closing, Employee defers $22,500 in Seller Plan.  After testing, Employee receives a $6,000 refund.  After closing, Employee defers $6,000 to Buyer Plan.  Would Employee's W-2 show $28,500 in the 401(k) Box (since payroll provider is the same), and also receive a 1099 to show the $6,000 refund?  Or can we just adjust the W-2 to show $22,500 in deferrals for the year?