Plan Sponsor has old TIAA individual contracts in 403(b) plan.  More than 90 of these contracts belong to terminated participants.  We (the TPA) would like TIAA to take some action to show that these contracts are distributed for 5500 purposes.  Has anyone had experience they could share with this issue?

Thanks!

I have a solo 401(k) participant that has $0 Schedule C compensation and is age 55. Is the allowable deferral $0 or $6,000? 

I cannot seem to find anything on this. 

Thanks!!

I have a plan with 3 partners and a few nhce

3% flexable SH to all ee's.  Plan does not exclude HCE from the safe harbor.  Plan is Top Heavy

they would like to exclude one partner from receiving the safe harbor.  Can you exclude one HCE/Owner from receiving safe harbor in a board resolution and still have safe harbor status?

Plan sponsor wants to split its current SH401(k) (130-ish participants and going up each year)  into two identical plans in order to avoid the audit requirement.  Split could probably be done by placing certain categories of EEs in just one plan.  I'm much more comfortable with this than alphabetical approach, but my understanding is that is that even that is generally considered acceptable.

Here is the wrinkle.  There is also a cash balance plan that is tested with the DC plan.  Does this make splitting the DC plan more complicated?  I had a brief conversation with an actuary and even he was stumped and needed to do some digging. 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Partner in an llc gets a k1 with 70,000+- in net se income. He has w2 income from other companies that have social security withheld.

Does the social security from the w2's affect the calculation of a maximum profit sharing contribution?

Might a plan self-correct a missed deferral opportunity by allowing the participant to deposit an amount to the plan equal to the missed deferral amount?

Due to an error in plan sponsor's payroll department, an eligible Highly Compensated Employee's deferral election of $24,000 was not carried over from 2016.  This was not discovered until this past month by the participant's tax accountant who was preparing her 2017 tax return.

Plan sponsor is prepared to self-correct under Rev. Proc. 2016-51 by making a qualified nonelective contribution (QNEC) equal to 25% of the Missed Deferral Opportunity, as adjusted for earnings, and supplying the requisite notice.  However, participant and participant's accountant would prefer to pay $24,000 to the plan and have the plan sponsor issue an amended W-2.  Plan sponsor is agreeable, since would save them the cost of the $6,000 QNEC.  However, my initial reaction is that such a deposit would fail to meet the definition of an elective deferral.  While it might be argued that the contribution will be made "pursuant to a cash or deferred election under a cash or deferred arrangement," I don't see how it can be categorized as an "employer contribution."

ACP test fails and we are now past the end of the following plan year - the statutory correction period. Therefore, sponsor is doing the one-for-one method via self correction. Correction method and plan document allow for forfeiture of non-vested match, but vested as of when - the end of the plan year to which the excess was attributable or as of the date of corrective distribution (for those vested)?

Is there any issue to make a QDRO Distribution to Ex-spouse in the form of Partial Lump Sum  in Cash and the remaining amount as a Direct Rollover?

It is my understanding that there is not going to be the 10% tax penalty for a QDRO distribution under age 59 1/2 if it is made from a qualified plan unlike if it was from IRA.

Background:  Real Estate Investment Company owned 3 businesses, seemingly unrelated as they are in different states and simply different operations.  Benefit plans are operated independently at each location.  But there is common ownership. One of the 3 was sold off 2 years ago.

Company now realizes they needed to file welfare plan 5500's, so they are going back in time under DFVC, combining the two current locations with the intent to reduce the number of plan filings from the past.  Moving forward they will file as one wrap plan.

Question: To what extent should they worry about the now sold off location for those years?

Retirement payments commenced two years ago in life only form (actually a little more complicated - amount reduces at his age 65, but in any event stops on his death). This was done to increase their income. She signed waiver of J&S.

Now they may be divorcing - can she get a QDRO? (I think the answer is yes.) Or did the waiver eliminate that option? And is it restricted to payments during his lifetime? Or can it be done for her lifetime? (She is healthier and he is 61, she 54) 

I realize that as always the plan document may be more restrictive than the law allows but we don’t have access to the document at this time. Thank you!

I have a quick question. I wanted to pay off my 401K loan with an outstanding balance of $7,500, today 4/8/18.  I called my my benefits retirement plan on Friday, 4/6/18, and told me that my highest balance within the 12 month period from today is about $14,000? I get confused a little bit.

If I wanted to borrow, after I paid off my outstanding loan of $7,500, what is the maximum amount I can borrow? I have $110,000 vested balance including this $7,500?

Is it $50,000 less the highest loan balance of $14,000 in a 12 month period?, even though I will fully paid the $7,500? which is $36,000? or $50,000? or $42,500? (ASSUMING this $7,500 is fully paid)

Can someone please help me figure out? Because the plan administrator whom I talked to can't explain it fully to me.

I appreciate any help, please.

Thanks,

Mareil

What is my recourse if I disagree with the QDRO proposed by my ex-spouse?  Do I have to sign it?  Can I strike through the part that says "Consented to By" under the signature line?  If I don't sign, or if I strike through, can I be held in contempt?  What recourse do I have?

Curious for thoughts on this issue.  Due to payroll issue for small group of participants, the employer failed to apply 401(k) elective deferrals for a pay period which included both regular pay checks plus annual bonus payments from 2017.  As a result, participants failed to have 401(k) deferrals taken out of bonus payments (some of which are relatively significant portion of regular pay).  Employer realized the mistake shortly after it happened and corrected to ensure that regular elective deferrals were being deducted by next pay period.

Question, can the employer apply the 0% QNEC provisions under 2015-28 to the missed annual bonus deferrals as well as regular pay (assuming notice and other requirements are satisfied).  Piece that I am worried about is requirement that correct / regular deferrals start back within set timeframe.  In this case, the elective deferral issues have been corrected and regular deferrals from pay started back the next pay period.  Seems that should be fine for using 0% QNEC for the missed regular pay amounts but does same thing apply to the one-time bonus payment as well.  There are no other bonus payment deferrals to start back in same way regular pay deferrals start back.  Although seems same general philosophy should apply here for the most part in that participants will have plenty of time to up their deferral elections from regular pay to make up for the missed deferral on the bonus amounts.  It's just that they will have to increase regular deferrals by a much higher amount to make up for the missed deferral on the bonus checks.

My employer (state of California) has a policy ( that they say they will not change) of cashing out credit card tips on a daily basis to employees.  As such we do not have the opportunity of deferring that income into the 401(k) plan.  Try as I might I cannot find any law that requires the employer to leave the tips on the paycheck if requested by the employee.  It seems to me that this would violate the definition of compensation and would put their safe harbor 401(k) plan in violation.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance

This question relates to the recharacterization of Pre-Tax Deferrals to After-Tax Contributions to correct an ADP test violation. Treas. Reg. Section 1.401(k)-2(b)(3)(ii) states that recharacterized excess contributions will be includible in the HCE's taxable income "as if such amounts were distributed" under the regulations applicable to distributions of excess ADP amounts.  Does this require that recharacterized excess contribution must be adjusted for allocable earnings like in an actual corrective distribution would be, i.e., recharacterized contributions along with earnings reported on 1099-R, etc.? My understanding is that when recharacterizing correction option used, allocable earnings are not taken into account, i.e., recharacterized amount (and thus taxable amount reported on 1099-R, etc.) equals just the actual excess contribution without earnings. Any insight would be appreciated.

Apologies if this has already been discussed, I searched and could not find anything on point...

Employer offers voluntary life insurance with premiums based on age bands. Without realizing it, they have been administering the plan such that premiums automatically increased mid year when a participant reached a new age band (i.e. 40th birthday).  A couple questions -

1) Is this practice consistent with 26 CFR 1.125-4(f)(2)(i) below (if plan document allows)?  

(i)Automatic changes. If the cost of a qualified benefits plan increases (or decreases) during a period of coverage and, under the terms of the plan, employees are required to make a corresponding change in their payments, the cafeteria plan may, on a reasonable and consistent basis, automatically make a prospective increase (or decrease) in affected employees' elective contributions for the plan.

2) If it is permissible under the regs (if plan document allows), but plan document does not currently allow, can the plan document be amended retroactively to correct?

Thanks

I don't really know beans about these. Had a question about such a plan that supposedly utilizes a standardized prototype - haven't seen a document so I can't say. I was able to look up the 5500 form, and the Plan Characteristics Codes do not indicate a pre-approved document is being used.

My general question is this: (I haven't looked at LRMS on this, by the way) - do you know, offhand, if a "normal - whatever that is" multiemployer 401(k) plan would require special multiemployer language, or can it use "regular" plan language? Seems like there would have to be some sort of special multiemployer language.

I'm working with a plan that is considering implementing a QACA SH match on 1/1/2019, but they would also like to match additional contributions over the QACA match. Specifically, they want to match 50% of contributions on deferrals between 7-10%  - auto escalating up to 10% using the QACA AE provision. They want to try and get total employee contributions over 15%, but encourage it with the discretionary match over the QACA formula. 

is the discretionary match subject only to ACP? are there other considerations with offering this additional match above the SH match limit? any help would be appreciated. 

I'm sure this has been asked and answered, but I can't lay my eyes on it.  Owner-Participant of 401(k) Profit-Sharing plan has to take an RMD.  He has 100k in the pooled profit-sharing account and 50k in FBO 401k account.  Isn't this ONE retirement plan and RMD can come from either/both accounts?

I know you cannot amend the allocation methodology once someone has satisfied the accrual requirements for a particular year.  In this case, there is a 1000 hour requirement for accrual of the NE.  I thought there was guidance issued by the IRS about 6 - 8 year ago where they specified that if the amendment was done by May 15th (Calendar year plan), the amendment was permissible even if someone had worked more than 1000 hours.  I cannot find anything to support this now.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?