We have a plan that was supposed to exclude the HCEs from the matching contribution.  The original plandocument didn’t have the option.  The new plan document does, but the box wasn’t checked.  The plan was promoted as no contribution to HCEs in all the meetings and materials.  We are giving it to them for 2018, but don’t want to for2019.  Can we retroactively exclude the HCEs for 2019 effective back to 1/1/2019?

It appears from my research that a safe harbor 401(k) plan that uses the 3% nonelective contribution on plan compensation that does not satisfy the "safe harbor" definition of compensation and fails the 414s compensation test is a problem.

It appears the method of correction is to base the 3% safe harbor contribution on a "safe harbor" definition of compensation which may or may not need an amendment depending on how the plan is written.

I am wondering if there are any alternatives other than having the employer deposit additional contributions.  For example, can one run the ADP Test on the basis of a "safe harbor" defn of compensation?

To illustrate, a plan defines compensation to exclude bonuses and OT pay. a participant earns $70,000 of total compensation of which $20,000 is excluded as OT pay.  The participant defers 5% of pay, or $2,500 (i.e. $50,000 x 5%).  The company deposits a 3% safe harbor amount of $1,500 (i.e. $50,000 x 3%).  At year end, it is determined the plan defn of compensation fails to satisfy 414s.  Must the employer deposit an additional $600 (i.e. $20,000 excluded pay x 3%) or can they first run the ADP Test on the basis of full compensation.  Is it possible for the employer to first run the ADP Test on basis of using the total wage (i.e. the participant defers 3.57%, calculated as $2,500/$70,000) to see if the ADP Test is satisfied?  If it is possible to run the ADP Test and it fails, may the plan be remedied by having the affected HCEs receive a refund of the excess deferrals on this basis?

Is the stipend compensation included in plan compensation?

401(k) plan - employees are paid regular hourly wages, plus a stipend for meals, lodging, etc. when traveling. The sponsor specializes in providing services to other areas so the stipend makes up a large portion of the company payroll. I believe these are also sometimes called per diem payments. (not to be confused with per diem employees). 

The plan document defines plan compensation as W-2 Wages without any exclusions (so fringe benefit is not marked as being specifically excluded). 

"Wages within the meaning of Code §3401(a) and all other payments of compensation to an Employee by the Employer (in the course of the Employer's trade or business) for which the Employer is required to furnish the Employee a written statements under Code §6041(d), 6051(a)(3), and 6052, determined without regard to any rules under Code §301(a) that limit the remuneration included in wages based on the nature of location of the employment or the services performed."

It's clear that the stipend in NOT a reimbursement, as it is based on the government rates, and not actual expenses. It's also clear that the stipend is not taxable income and doesn't appear on the W-2. But plenty of things don't appear on the W-2 (FSA elections for example) but are still included as comp. 

I don't have familiarity with this type of compensation. Thoughts? Other Benefit link threads that have covered this? 

I understand that the determination date for top heavy is the last day of the first plan year (for a  new plan year).  If the plan is top heavy as of 12/31/18, the employer doesn't have to make a minimum contribution until the 2019 plan year, right?

Sponsor acquired through a stock purchase a company that had a 401(k). some participants have variable annuities as investments in the plan. the new fiduciary wants to know what his options are as he doesn't want to have a legal duty to monitor the annuities. my thought is restrict new money investments and wait for the surrender charges to burn off and then force the participants to liquidate.  

are there any other alternatives for example like maybe quarantining the annuities in another plan and just writing a memo that says you didnt chose them have no expertise etc.  

If a sponsor over deposits the Match for a HCE, do you count the total deposited in the ACP test or would you forfeit first? 

i.e.  Match is 50% on 6%.  The match should have been 8,250.  Client deposited 10k.  Would you test 10k or 8,250 in the ACP test?

Just want to make sure I'm not missing something. Had an inquiry from an employer who sponsors a cafeteria plan where the employer (C-corp) has 3 owner/employees only - ALL are Key. No NHC employees.

I assume this has no possibility of passing testing, as I'm not aware of any provision similar to qualified plans where coverage/nondiscrimination is automatically passed if there are no NHC employees. So they would automatically fail the 25% key employee concentration test.

Agree, or am I missing something?

I'm not sure if this is complicated or not, just that I have not run across this before.  Individual A has a solo 401k plan for himself.  No other employees of his business.  Now he is going to go work for a small employer as their employee.  This new employer does not have any retirement plan.

Would the new company be able to "take over" as the plan sponsor of the solo 401k plan, allowing their employees to become participants as well as allowing Individual A to stay in the plan?  I don't see why not, but, it just seems odd.  This is not a merger situation since the company has no plan to begin with.

Thanks

Facts:

Employer has a 6/30 fiscal year and would like to install a SH 401k for the coming 6/30/2019 Fiscal Year end. In order to be a Safe Harbor plan for this year, it must be in place no later than 3/31.

For 2018 the employer provided a SIMPLE plan.  The 2018 employer contributions are to be deducted on the 6/30/2019 fiscal year return (as is required by SIMPLE plan rules of deduction -- cal year ending within the fiscal year provided contributed by due date of Fed return (incl exts)).

Questions:

Is this employer permitted to establish a new Safe Harbor 401k Plan (incl PS provisions) for its FY ending 6/30/2019 with a Plan Effective Date of 7/1/2018, thus full dollar limitations? Or, must it delay the effective date to 1/1/2019 since it had a SIMPLE thru 12/31/2018 (pro-rated limitations)? 

Thank you

I was asked to review a single participant DB plan for a 68 year old.  He has $4,500,000 in the plan.

He was planning to retire so a transfer to a PS Plan doesn't really help, even if he works till he drops.

After you tell him to get his benefit out of the plan and put his wife on payroll for as much compensation as the CPA will allow, what can you do?

Company has three owners, A (the father), and B & C (the sons).  Um, had three owners, as A passed away in 2017 (while in RMD status, but I don't think that matters here).  With advice from their financial adviser, B&C chose to keep their portion of their father's money in the plan, so we created beneficiary accounts for them in the plan alongside their regular accounts.

How should we be treating these beneficiary accounts for the purposes of top heavy calculations?  I'd think we count them in both numerator and denominator for 2018, but what about beyond?

Scenario: SIMPLE IRA went "bad" (disqualified) several years ago due to failure to offer the SIMPLE to the employees of a related company.

Cost to make corrective contributions under EPCableRS for the employees of the related company would be exorbitantly expensive so the only viable option is to treat the contributions as not having been made to a "qualified" SIMPLE IRA.

There's no official guidance on how to handle this so our thought is:

1. For the year's still open under the statute of limitations have the employer amend the W-2s to add the deferrals and the match to Box 1 wages and the match to Box 3&5 SS and Medicare wages. There should be no income tax impact to the employer but will owe SS & Medicare tax on the match amounts (employer will also pay employee share)..

2. At the participant level treat additional income amounts as contributions to a traditional IRA. Depending on the employees situation the contributions may be deductible, non-deductible or excess. Employer will cover the costs associated with amending the employees individual tax returns and paying additional taxes but due to the small amounts involved it's believed that the vast majority will be deductible so the net tax impact to the employees will be negligible.

Anything we're missing?

A client just supplied me with their 2018 W-2's showing total employee deferrals of $22,000. When I balanced the assets of the plan from their brokerage statements, the total deferrals amounted to$20,000. I thought that the missing $2,000 was simply a contribution in transit that would show up early in January, 2019. Unfortunately, only $1,000 showed up in January leaving the plan $1,000 short. When I questioned the office manager, she indicated that the November contribution of $1,000 was never deposited and wants to know if she should deposit this amount now. As I see it, there are a few issues:

1) employee deferrals are cash items. Therefore, the remaining $1,000, yet to be deposited, cannot be considered employee deferrals for 2018.

2) If 1) above is true, then the individual W-2's reflect excessive deferrals amounts and need to be re-done. Conceivably, if individual 2018 personal tax returns have been already filed, they may need to be re-filed.  

3) Since the $1,000 has been in a corporate account rather than the 401(k) since November, could this be a prohibited transaction?

4) If the adjustments for most (there are only about 6 in the plan) would be relatively small, if there anything that can be legally done to make this mess just go away?

A client just supplied me with their 2018 W-2's showing total employee deferrals of $22,000. When I balanced the assets of the plan from their brokerage statements, the total deferrals amounted to$20,000. I thought that the missing $2,000 was simply a contribution in transit that would show up early in January, 2019. Unfortunately, only $1,000 showed up in January leaving the plan $1,000 short. When I questioned the office manager, she indicated that the November contribution of $1,000 was never deposited and wants to know if she should deposit this amount now. As I see it, there are a few issues:

1) employee deferrals are cash items. Therefore, the remaining $1,000, yet to be deposited, cannot be considered employee deferrals for 2018.

2) If 1) above is true, then the individual W-2's reflect excessive deferrals amounts and need to be re-done. Conceivably, if individual 2018 personal tax returns have been already filed, they may need to be re-filed.  

3) Since the $1,000 has been in a corporate account rather than the 401(k) since November, could this be a prohibited transaction?

4) If the adjustments for most (there are only about 6 in the plan) would be relatively small, if there anything that can be legally done to make this mess just go away?

Hello,

If the paycredit rate (say 5%) is enough to pass the 401(a)(4) test, but not enough to meet the Top Heavy benefits, what do you do?

Say an employee earned $1,000 in paycredits for 2018.  Plan passes 410b and 401a4.  Say the hypothetical account balance for the employee is $2,000 as of 2018, but if the employee terminates now and therefore receives the Top Heavy minimum, the amount must be increased to $5,000.  So you know the paycredit for 2018 is not enough for the "distribution" amount....

Do you increase 2018 pay credit for this person with a discretionary amendment?  I don't think 11g amendment applies since there is no failed test?

If you leave the paycredit at $1,000 for 2018, do you inform the client that the actual payout amount would have to be $5,000? 

Creating a DC plan would be the best option, but let's say the client is not interested in adopting one.

Thank you!

401(k) Plan has a discretionary match that is calculated after end of the plan year.     The ACP test fails and there is a return of excess to process.   However, the employer won't be depositing the match until probably May or June.     Do we still process that distribution by March 15 even though the deposit hasn't been made?    Doing so would take the withdrawal from the participant's current account balance.   Or do we wait until the match has been deposited and pay the 10% excise tax penalty?   

Plan A matches based on total gross pay, but for purposes of the match, they want to amend the Plan effective 1/1/2020 to exclude a lot of different compensation items.

I assume I still have the flexibility to leave the plan on prior year testing, thus getting one more year of the "inflated" ACP results?  In other words, I know in 2020 the ACP average for the NHCE's is going to take a hit, but I'll still be using the 2019 averages anyway.

I suppose it's the flip side of a company discontinuing the match in 2019, forgetting to switch to current year testing, and then resuming the match in 2020 (a scenario we all agree means 100% refunds for the HCE's). 

Can a safe harbor plan exclude the employees of one member of a controlled group? Can the plan be separated into SH and non-SH?

Hello! I would like to get your input.If there is an outstanding 403B loan for example 15k in Vanguard. The employer switch to a new carrier and now 100k of 401 money is moved to Fidelity. If a new loan is processed with the new services, would the 50k IRS limit apply? The loans are in two different service providers but in the same employer's 403 B plan. Your input is highly appreciated. Thank you. 

Hello.

The owner of a plan is going to be terminating his plan in 2019.  He also attained age 70 1/2 in 2019.

His first distribution calendar year is 2019, and his required beginning date is 4/1/2020.

He intends to terminate the plan in 2019, and payout all account balances prior to 12/31/2019.

His account balance will be rolled over into an IRA.

My question is:  would he need to have his first RMD processed in 2019 since his first distribution year is 2019, or can his entire balance be rolled over because his required beginning date is not until 4/1/2020.  

Thank you very much!!