An employer deposited, erroneously, 2016 matching contributions into a number of employee accounts.  The mistake was discovered in January 2017; adjustments can be made to accounts; no problem.  But some employees have left and taken a distribution.  What duty does the employer have to seek repayment to the 401(k) trust?  Does employer have duty to notify the employee? To advise that the mistaken match isn't eligible for rollover and if not repaid a 1099 will have to be issued (or maybe just recharacterize as additional company non-matching contributions (all employees affected are nhce's as well as collectively bargained)?

Any insight is appreciated.

A plan that is covered by the PBGC is terminating. The plan is in the 60 day review period with the PBGC. One of the participants has a DRO that has not been signed by the court yet.  If the court does not sign the DRO by the distribution deadline how do we handle the distribution to the participant with the DRO?

Can anyone point me towards any authority (ERISA or IRC) which holds that a pension plan participant cannot receive pension benefits which are 25% greater than the salary they earned from the the employer? If this is true, does this figure include severance payments and/or payments for unused personal/sick time?

A PS has created a new company and wants make a new 401(k) plan soley by "carving out" existing participants.  Same investments, same recordkeeper, same docs. Do they need to provide a SOX notice to the "carved out" participants?  Appreciate the assist, happy to be on board.

As a company, we have a policy of testing plan with comp exclusions for 414(s) first, then using that compensation for ACP testing.  However, I do not believe that is necessary.  Under IRS regulations, 415 compensation can be used for ACP testing, and, if the plan passes, no further action is needed.  I remember seeing posts to this effect.  Am I incorrect?  Can someone give me examples of reasons 414(s) is needed for a plan with only a match that passes ACP on 415 compensation?  Thank you!

Doing a 2016 TH test (balances a/o 12/31/15)

We have someone who termed July 1, 2015 and took her balance in September 2015.  She was 60% vested.  She was paid $6,000 and forfeited $4,000.

How much do I add back in to my TH test?  Just the 6k or the full 10k?

I have a plan with 1 HCE and 2 NHCE.  Last day rule for this PS only plan.  One NHCE terms with 200 hrs of service.

Can I exclude him from the ABT test for contributions?  (I believe I can for coverage)

We have a client whose plan excludes fringe benefits from the definition of compensation under the 414(s) safe harbor alternative definition of compensation on an FT William document. Some of the things that the client believes are "fringe benefits" are not what I think is a fringe benefit. Neither the adoption agreement nor the base plan document defines fringe benefit. FT William says they can't give tax advice.

Treas. Reg. 1.414(s)1(c)(3) also mentions fringe benefits but fails to define that term.

Does anyone have a good reference that I can provide to my client?

One of my clients sent me employees compensation information directly exported from their payroll system.

A week later I have received W-2s for all employees, including W-3 (Summary of W2 Data Totals for Company).

Most employees’ compensation from the payroll system was higher than the W-2 box 5 compensation.

Majority of affected employees’ W-2 box 12a shows some amount with code DD (cost of employer sponsored health coverage). These employees’ compensation from the payroll system equals the sum of the W-2s box 5 and box 12a code DD.

For some other employees, I needed to add W-2s box 14 code GAP, box 5 and box 12a code DD to get to the compensation from the payroll system.

Compensation definition in the plan is 3401(a). I suppose I needed to increase the compensation by elective deferrals under IRC 402(g)(3), IRC 125, IRC 457 and IRC 132(f)(4).

Does this mean the compensation for retirement plan purposes has to be the sum of W-2 box 5, box 12a code DD and box 14 code GAP (or in short the compensation from their payroll system)?

Help please (if possible examples and explanation from the code or the regulation).

Owner A and Owner B both sponsor a 401k plan together for their employees.  There is no common ownership but there is overlap in operations for admin, financial reporting, payroll processing, etc.  As it happens, Owner B is an executive with Owner A (Owner A is a very large operation, and Owner B's is much smaller, so owner B has a very significant role in the operations of Owner A's business.    Owner B makes 401k contributions from the co-sponsored plan of $18,000 with respect to his compensation received from Owner A's company.

Can Owner B set up  a profit sharing plan and get $53,000 of proifit sharing too (testing passes taking into account all of B's employees, and that;s not really the question anyway).  The profit sharing plan is NOT a multiple employer plan - only Owner B's company establishes/maintains the Plan.

HEre is the regulation from 415(a)-1:

e) Rules for plans maintained by more than one employer. Except as provided in §1.415(f)-1(g)(2)(i) (regarding aggregation of multiemployer plans with plans other than multiemployer plans), for purposes of applying the limitations of section 415 with respect to a participant in a plan maintained by more than one employer, benefits and contributions attributable to such participant from all of the employers maintaining the plan must be taken into account. Furthermore, in applying the limitations of section 415 with respect to a participant in such a plan, the total compensation received by the participant from all of the employers maintaining the plan is taken into account under the plan, unless the plan specifies otherwise.

Plan's QDRO procedures stipulate that once a QDRO has been certified, there is a 60 day period in which either party may appeal (although I'm not sure if there are limits on WHAT they can appeal). The question is whether the participant or the AP should have investment control of the AP's interest during this time, knowing that there is some chance that the participant could appeal the QDRO in some fashion and the amount payable to the AP could be reduced or eliminated. Thoughts?

A participant has an outstanding loan. Loan payments are paid via payroll deduction. Can the participant request loan payments to stop and then restart down the road (assuming they catch back up, down extend beyond  the term of the loan, etc.)?

New client to us.  Tells us company is a 51/49% partnership with wife/husband.  We received draft K-1s for both.  K-1 for wife has a dollar amount on line 14a.  K-1 for husband (whose K-1 lists him as a limited partner) is showing nothing on line 14a.  Has anyone seen this before?  It is my contention that the husband does not have compensation for retirement plan purposes.  There is nothing on the guaranteed payments line for either partner.

100% owner wants to roll his traditional IRA into his 401(k).  Assuming the plan accepts rollovers from IRAs I don't see why he can't do that, but his CPA is telling him that owners can't roll IRAs into their company's 401(k). 

Am I missing something? 

Thanks for any guidance.

Does anyone have a simple earned income calculation spreadsheet they would be willing to share?  Our old software had a calculator induced but our new one does not.  I was going to sit down and create a spreadsheet calculator for it but it struck me that someone here may have a simple one already.

Thanks

J

Participant and spouse split her account balance in 2016 according to the terms of a QDRO

Plan account is pooled account, upon instructions from the client, since the spouse was rolling over, the brokerage firm wrote the check directly to the financial institution.

I assume the spouse should be issued a 1099, code G with the plan as the payor and the participant's account would show the money coming out of her account.

However, the spouse is not a participant.

Is this cause for concern?

What is the deadline for making a 2016 catchup contribution?

SIMPLE IRA arrangements may use the VCP Procedures. However, some items on the VCP Forms seem inapplicable. For example, an employer with a SIMPLE IRA arrangement does not typically have access to the total Plan assets or the current number of Plan "participants." The employer would know the number of individuals it is currently contributing for and could, perhaps with a lot of work, aggregate all past individuals it contributed for, which still would not necessarily be the same as all current participants.  The instructions do not address exceptions for SIMPLE IRAs for these items. Any thoughts other than to include an attachment saying something along the lines of 'Because this is a SIMPLE IRA arrangement, the employer does not have the amount of plan assets or the number of plan participants." ?
 

We have a client that has an LLC where the employees are paid and each of the three partners have their own s-corp.  The LLC and two partner's have a simple plan.  The other partner wants to have his own 401(k) plan.  Each partner is a 33% owner of the LLC.  Can the one partner have his own 401(k) plan? 

Are employee deferrals included in 415?

Salary 70,000 

defers 18,000

What is max Profit Sharing Contribution?