Company files its 5500s appropriately for 5 different benefits on separate 5500's. They are consolidating and creating a wrap plan document effective beginning of current year, with brand new plan number.

None of the current 'plans' have an existing ERISA plan document.

In addition to the resolution adopting the new plan and wrap plan document, do other plans which will be filing 'Final' 5500's need plan termination resolutions, given that there has never been a plan document to begin with?

We have a (calendar yr) client who failed the ADP and ACP tests for 2016.  Unfortunately, we didn't know until we finally received his census on 10/12/17.  It is a small plan with just 6 people; in 2015 the owner deferred a little under 6% and the testing easily passed.  He decided to max out deferrals for 2017 and so deferring at almost 14% both his ADP and ACP tests failed.  WE are trying to figure out if there is some way around the give-back and forfeiting match.

You see the NHCEs deferrals averaged 5.31%, which in our experience is not bad.  But the employer matches a straight 25%, which is almost unheard of.  His argument is that he is being far more generous than most employers, and yet he is penalized for the failed tests.

Can anyone think of a way around this?  QNEC is way too high, and yes, we are discussing SH for 2018.

I work with a recordkeeper whose calculated loan payment never seems to match the one that I calculate. I generally use a standard loan amortization schedule (a spreadsheet and I also coded one in Python), and have cross-checked it on multiple online calculators (those calculators almost always match the one I get, perhaps off by a penny).

I asked the recordkeeper about it and got a very vague answer - that it depends on the interest rate and on the time period.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, have you gotten an answer to the discrepancies?

Part of the reason I am asking is because I like to generate my own amortization schedule and when a payment is off by even $.10, it adds up over 5 years and makes my schedule wonky even if I try to override the payment amount. I really want to know what is going on with their calculator.

We recently discovered an error in previous software that resulted in a few participants not being recognized as eligible for defined benefit plan benefits.   They were never reported on SSA or 8955-SSA.   Should we report them in this years 8955-SSA???   And is there anything else we should do?    

If I work .6 FTE, for example, can an employer limit my HRA reimbursement to .6 of what a full-time employee would receive?

P.S. - I've seen several third party sources that say you can provide different levels of HRA benefits for, say, full-time vs. part-time employees, but have not seen any citation to official guidance.

If Adoption Agreement has 3% SH NEC to all participants checked, and no one defers - not HCE or NHCEs, must the sponsor still pay the 3% SH NEC?

We have a partnership profit sharing plan effective 2013.

Using trade date, less than $250K in plan as of 1/1/2014, using payroll date, $260K in plan with only 2013 contributions.

Trade date was basis for 2015 5500s as the first return filed.

For 2015, both partners contributed $53K each, but for 2016, only one partner contributed.

To be consistent,  if we used payroll date for the 2016 5500s, the trust report shows $159K in contributions.made during 2016.

Won't the fact that there are two participants in the plan and the contribution made during the year, cause a red flag to either or both DOL and IRS???

I came across a scenario where a company is willing to either provide an employee a matching contribution in the 401k plan, or student loan payoff assistance outside the 401k plan. 

On the surface, I'm struggling to understand how this wouldn't violate the assignment regulations of 401-13. Any thoughts on how this could be acceptable/written in a plan document? I've asked for a document to see how it's written but haven't received it yet. 

I represent a company that has an HDHP and HSA  for employees. Due to a TPA error, several HDHP and HSA participants who had not yet reached their HDHP deductible were designated as though they had. Because of this designation, said participants began receiving reimbursements from the HDHP. Obviously, this would make said participants ineligible for an HSA since they are being covered by another medical plan before reaching their deductible. Is there a way for the affected participants to pay back the reimbursement monies paid by the HDHP so they could once again become HSA eligible? To further clarify, this has all happened within the 2017 calendar year. 

Does anyone have advice about how to determine the market value of limited partnership investments?

Case:  A profit sharing plan with pooled assets (no individual direction) of a law firm with 3 partners and 10 rank and file employees has investments in real estate limited partnerships among other assets.  Taking one of the limited partnerships as an example:

The plan paid $250,000 four years ago for an 11% interest in a group of limited partners who bought a shopping center.  The center has tenants who pay rent, the partners incur expenses, etc. etc. and a K-1 is issued each year.  My research has indicated that K-1s are great as a snapshot of cash flow but do not have any information regarding market value at the end of the year of the limited partnership.  

The underlying asset has been appraised at $36,000,000.  But the market value of the limited partnership itself is nowhere near 11% of $36,000,000.  In fact, one of the other partners who also paid $250,000 for their share recently wanted to sell out.  They offered their share to the other partners.  Nobody wanted it except one, who offered 10% less than the original purchase price, and the seller declined and kept it.  However, the seller would have let it go for the full $250,000 he paid for it originally.

We have to have something provided to us that we can "hang our hat on" when we produce an annual report with account values as of December 31st.  The client has tried to push the broker who sold them the limited partnership into providing a market value, but all he can come up with is the appraisal of the real estate parcel as a whole.

All this is to say that my client is completely baffled at how to come up with a reasonable value for this type of asset.  I wondered if anyone else has had this problem and how you resolved it?

Thank you.

RE: my  company has sponsored a 401(k) Plan for a long time, and in recent years I have downsized my company by subbing work out and reducing employees.  Now, I'm down to only 1 part time employee, less than 1,00 hours per year.  But, the part time employee and one ex-employee have never moved their account balances somewhere else. 

Can I start filing a 5500EZ?   It would be so much EZer.    

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-17-64.pdf

Highlights:

DB 415 limit increases from $215,000 to $220,000

DC 415 limit increases from $54,000 to $55,000

Elective deferral limit increases from $18,000 to $18,500

Annual compensation limit increases from $270,000 to $275,000

Key employee remains unchanged at $175,000

HCE remains unchanged at $120,000

457 deferral limit increased from $18,000 to $18,500

Is a QDIA notice required for a non ERISA Plan?  Please provide the regulations that address this question. Thanks.

Now that 5500 season is over

If you have never run a report globally, follow notes above.

This will produce a report for every plan that has (or might need) a minimum distribution (I ended up with 110 of them - each report will be labeled min distribution report followed by the plan ID).  works only on DC plans (and possibly cash balance plans because they have an account balance)

Report should work every year until they change the min distribution factors.

of course it's a use at your own risk, but I haven't found any differences between the results and the "standard" Relius report. (well, ok, sometimes you have to 'set trade date field' to enable the Relius standard report to pull the actual balance.)

reminder: adjustments may be needed for non-calendar year plans.

Min Distributions Report.rpt

I own a small business. The only employees are me and my wife.

In 2016, I set up a SIMPLE IRA which we have maxed out in 2016 and 2017, making the first deposits in March 2016.

I recently came to believe that a Solo 401(k) would be a better option for our circumstances. I would like to establish it and start contributing to the Solo 401(k) as soon as possible.

I understand the funds in the SIMPLE cannot be transferred before April 2018 without significant penalty.

I don't think I can contribute in 2017, per the "one plan requirement". However, can I have an effective date for the Solo 401(k) of Jan 1 2017 or now or do I have to wait until Jan 1, 2018 or Jan 1, 2019?  In other words, does the one plan requirement mandate only having one plan or only contributing to one plan?

What is the earliest I can contribute to the Solo 401(k)? I think I can start Jan 1, 2018, if I don't contribute to the SIMPLE in 2018, but I'm not sure. Do I need to terminate the SIMPLE (announce to myself and my wife before November 2nd) before I contribute (same as my previous question)? Can I terminate the SIMPLE this year, or do I have to wait until March 2018 (the two year anniversary of the first deposit)?

Thanks!

HH

Is there a regulation that defines "base salary" for purposes of a 409A elective account balance plan? I typically use a definition in my plan docs that describes what is versus what is not considered base salary, but I'm working with a takeover plan where the doc does not define base salary. The client continues to have fluctuations in contribution amounts due to PTO donations. They have always considered PTO as part of base salary. Is there any 409A standard definition or some other basis for me to look to? Thanks.

I have an extremely weird scenario that I'm absolutely stuck on.

I have a pre-ERISA irrevocable trust that, for some reason, is being litigated to get it under ERISA coverage.  

Important facts are as follows:

• Trust covers employees of let's say 20 individuals, all within one family.  When a family member dies, the plan automatically covers the next of kin's employees.  So the hypothetical 20 individuals is over a course of years; they weren't all involved at the same time.
• The trust was originally created by one individual, with a few others serving as trustees.  Trustees changed over the years, but suffice to say that most owner individuals never actively participated in the plan; it automatically covered their employees.
• The trust was originally funded with stock; there have since been no other contributions what so ever.  The trust would terminate when it ran out of money or beneficiaries.  Critical, to me, is the fact that no one can amend or terminate the plan, and the trustees' job was limited to directing payouts.  This plan literally has to run its course, and the end is not in sight.  

I have some solid arguments based around establishing/maintaining the plan, so I'm not worried about arguing that element.  The argument I can't substantiate beyond my gut feeling is that basically no entity having autonomy over the plan is OK under ERISA.  In the same breath, I have employers not "maintaining" a plan that they're also forced to participate in in perpetuity, which is bizarre to me.  None of these employers have taken active steps to adopt the plan (barring it's inception), nor have they had any hand in administration.  The whole thing just doesn't sit well with me.

Any insight would be much appreciated; thank you.

I know this may sound ignorant, but we'd like to import financial activity into admin software on a cash basis for top heavy, refunds, RMD's, 5500's, etc, but still want to run coverage and nondiscrimination tests only on census and calculated annual additions.  How do the various softwares handle cash basis accounting?

Told an advisor that I would ask around about software that people are using to be able to provide their clients with rates of return on their model portfolios.  I assume there must be software out there where this can be tracked?  Tracked on the basis of $1,000 invested (for example) with out adjustment for any participant activity (xfers in/out, etc.).  just how well did the funds the RIA picked perform.