An Employer's profit sharing allocation was pro-rata and included a last day requirement. On the last day of the plan year, an amendment is executed to change the allocation formula from pro-rata to individual rate groups.

Because the amendment was executed on the last day of the plan year, are they stuck with a pro-rata allocation for that plan year?

What form of documentation can a plan with an Individually Designed document have to ensure they maintain qualified tax status, since individually designed documents are no longer provided with IRS Determination Letters?

I have a plan (client) with a safe harbor match.  Their HCE made 166400 before bonus.  They only deferred on the base salary even though plan allows deferrals on  "irregular compensation."  The divided the $18500 between each pay period, and applied the SH Match formula each pay period.  Therefore they only matched them $6656

They had bonuses that made their compensation exceed  $275,000.  They did NOT defer on the bonuses.... I am trying to figure out if they can have the max SH match for 2018 or if they are stuck with the $6656

A client - a 501(c)(3) entity - has a contract with a local medical school pursuant to which school faculty (employed by the school) provide clinical services (treat patients) on the premises of this client.  The faculty providing the services assign their right to send their bills for services to my client, meaning the client bills the patients and receives payment.  The arrangement is that the faculty providing the clinical services gets paid 45 cents on $1 for each service provided, the rest of the money goes to support various departments of the 501c3.  The way the money collected is actually paid to the faculty/physicians is that, after my client collects the payments, it wires a lump sum to the medical school, with a list of which faculty/doctors to distribute payments to.  There is no 1099 or W-2 from my client (the 501c3).  Instead, the faculty/doctors get paid from the medical school through their regular pay stub/W-2 with an entry that says "clinical earnings".   

My client wants the medical school to contract with an insurance company to provide disability insurance to the clinical faculty.  Medical school wants nothing to do with it.  Is there a group that can be joined to allow for the provision of this disability insurance to the clinical faculty? The medical school does not want to pay the premiums, but the 501c3 client offered to cover the cost out of their reserves.  My client wants the disability benefits to be tax-free to the faculty/physicians; however, in order to do so, the premiums would have to be paid with after-tax dollars.  So for example, if the medical school agreed to do it, the medical school pays $100 for disability premium for an employee, that is then added to the employee's income, the employee than pays tax on regular salary plus the $100, and subsequently, the disability benefits are tax-free to the employee (because tax already paid on the $100).    

Is there a way that my client can pay these disability premiums? They are offering to do so.  So in other words, since the medical school doesn't want to be involved with this, can my client, the 501c3, somehow (maybe before releasing the money to the medical school) pay the disability premiums for the faculty/physicians, then issue them  a 1099 reporting it as additional income to them, such that the faculty/physicians pay tax on that extra income, and thus the benefits become tax free?  Is something like this permissible?  

I welcome any suggestions at all.  I have zero ideas.  Thanks.  

I have a Cycle A IDP filer that submitted the plan to the IRS for DL in the final cycle.  Since this restatement pertained to the 2015 Cumulative List of Changes, the document was restated effective 1/1/16.  However, it was not executed until January 2017.  Any issues?  I'm thinking not since the RAP ended 1/31/17, but maybe I'm missing something.

Under a 401(k) safe harbor plan, a long-time participant has semi-retired. This participant now works only 200 hours annually and has agreed to do the same for the next 5 years or so. Does this participant continue to benefit each year in the employers safe harbor non-elective contribution, or is there a way to exclude this participant based on hours.

Deleted.

Background:
Deceased participant (widow) with no inheritable benefits
Deceased participant's account was terminated upon death
There is not a will in place
Nobody has been appointed as "executor" 
A final 1099-R has been prepared for the deceased participant

Question:
Who can receive the final 1099-R for the deceased participant? If there is no official executor, can the retirement plan simply mail the 1099-R to a family member of the deceased?

TIA for your assistance.

Can someone give me a link to where I can see the IRS service spanning rules?

TIA

I want to see if there is agreement of my understanding of the Regulations on this situation.

I have always understood that the regulations with respect to eligibility/entry dates are designed so that basically if a person must work 1 year/age 21, then the entry dates must be set in such a way that ultimately the person is not required to work more than 18 months before he enters the plan.  So a plan with a 1-year requirement and quarterly entry dates is fine, because no way would someone have to work more than 18 months before entering the plan.

HOWEVER, in looking more closely at the regs, they require that the person must enter by the earlier of:

• the 1st day of the plan year after meeting the 1 year/age 21 requirement OR
• 6 months after meeting the 1 year/age 21 requirement.

I am thinking this essentially requires every plan to use the first day of the plan year as an entry date, but I want to see if that is correct. 

We have a calendar year plan that wants to use entry dates of 2/1, 5/1, 8/1 and 11/1 to coincide with open enrollment for other benefits.  I think they MUST also use a 1/1 entry date.  EXAMPLE:  a person hired 11/15/18 works one year by 11/15/19, he must enter on 1/1/20, he can't wait until 2/1/20.  I initially thought the 2/1 entry date was fine because the person would be entering with 18 months of hire, but I think in this case, he must enter 1/1.

Agreed?  Any other thoughts?  Thanks!

two 401(k) plans are merging as part of an asset sale. Plan A  contains a few variable annuities and is being merged into plan B.  Plan B does not want he variable annuities. what are Plan B's options with respect to the annuities. i was thinking worst case if they had to they could take the annuities but not allow other participants to purchase any more. but the acquiring plan sponsor would prefer to either force participants to roll them or liquidate.   

I have a controlled group, 3 companies, all three have a safe harbor enhanced match, and 2 of the three companies allocate a pro rata profit sharing contribution.    I'm having problems passing gateway as a few employees work for 2 companies, one with the profit sharing and one that does not allocate one.     

Since the contribution is allocated pro rata, do I even need to run the gateway test.   If I pass the average benefits percentage test, is that all I need to pass?  the plan passes 410b as well.   

A catch-up eligible NHCE elected to defer the maximum in calendar year 2018. The calendar year plan allows catch-up deferrals. The employer stopped withholding once they reached $18,500. The employer started withholding deferrals again January 1, 2019.

To fix a missed deferral using a 25% QNEC instead of a 50% QNEC, a notice must be provided no later than 45 days after the correct deferrals begin. The error only affected catch-up deferrals.

The notice requirement states "Notice of the failure that satisfies the content requirements of section .05(9)(c) of this Appendix A is given to an affected participant not later than 45 days after the date on which correct deferrals begin;"

Could the term "correct deferrals" mean the next time a catch-up deferral applies to the participant? That would be the date on which such “correct deferrals” begin? If so, that would allow a 25% QNEC to fix the error.

Otherwise, the 45-day notice requirement can't be met and the 50% QNEC applies.

Plan allows for partial withdrawals so long as the amount is at least $85.

Is this a protected benefit?  If so, can the client change the minimum amount or is that protected as well?

Client wants to leave the the PEO's 401k plan and start their own. The PEO plan is a safe harbor. Does the client's new plan have to be a safe harbor as well? Do they have to continue with the same plan provisions?

Looking for general market place averages for internal analysis:

Average salary for entry level processors

Average salary for exp. administrators

Average plan count for administrators

Average plan size,  number of participants

Thanks for any input. 

Based on the work/life scenario listed below--- I was wondering what the maximum HSA contribution would be for both individuals for 2018. They both have separate HDHP's.

My daughter and her fiancé have a child together (1 year old ) but are not married. They live and share a home (rental) together.

She is claiming the child as a dependent because her income is well below $200,000 and she will be able to file as head of household and also will receive the full child tax credit of $2,000. She had a HSA (self only) for the entire year and contributed $3,450 this year. She is 39 years old. 

Her fiancé makes too much income to receive the child tax credit but has the child on his health insurance because the health facility/doctor choices are a little better.  He will file as single for tax purposes. He also has a HSA for 2018 and contributed $3,450 (self only). He is also 39 years old. 

My question is: Are they maximizing their contributions to each HSA and can he actually have a family HSA because the child is on his medical plan and contribute to his HSA as a family plan ($6900)?

Any guidance is much appreciated.

Thank you,

Rick S.  

Hypothetically, if we (US/ world) are heading into a recession, how would you protect your 401k investments now? Move your assets to bonds? Would you continue your future allocation as you have been or would you change it to bonds or something more secure?

If a plan has the same 1 month of service eligibility requirements for profit sharing as it does for deferrals, must the NHCEs all receive a PS minimum gateway allocation in a cross tested plan if they satisfied the one month wait?

Can you disaggregate otherwise excludables in this case? So, those that did not meet the statutory one year wait can actually receive $0.00 allocation?

I was under the impression that this would apply only if there was a separate one year wait on the PS component.

I would like clarification on this.

One of the plans we oversee had an NHCE who changed their deferral % from 6% to 10% in February. Somehow this got registered as 0% and for two pay periods, nothing was deducted. This should qualify under the "brief exclusion" rules.

The participant will end up getting the full match for the year because of her current 10% election and the fact that the sponsor does a true-up. Because this will qualify for "brief exclusion"  treatment, the employer is not required to make up the missed deferrals. However, the question has been asked - what if they WANT to make them up, even if not required to do so? Can they do so electively? 

Thanks,

Dog