Wondering what you would do. Have two clients in similar yet different situations:

1. Client had 1 late 401(k) Deferral deposit for 2013. Just discovered it now. Did now extend the 5330 as we didn't know we needed to do one. Would you file a 5330 for 2013 or wait and file in 2014?

2. Client didn't fund Safe Harbor for 2012. Takeover Plan, we did not know until recently. Client has funded it now. Did not extend the 5330. Do we do a 5330 for 2013 or wait and file in 2014?

Plan allows for 3 loans.

Employee has a balance of $15,000.00

All 3 loans are exhausted and total $7,500.00

Can participant take a Hardship of the remaining $7,500.00?

Is the 50% loan security only needed at the time of the loan?

Never came across this.

I've heard the warnings ad nauseum regarding mid-year amendments to safe harbor 401(k) plans and have heard the IRS reps talk about it at ASPPA.

Just wondering what the professionals are doing out there with respect to amending safe harbor plans at this time. The safe harbor notice I use (Sungard) refers the participant to the SPD with regard to "other employer contributions". It doesn't state how profit-sharing contributions are allocated nor what the allocation requirements are.

If I proceed with a PPA restatement of a plan now, with a 1/1/2014 effective date and the ONLY feature of the plan that I change is the profit-sharing contribution allocation methodology, meaning the safe harbor notice will look just like it did when it was distributed in November, 2013, am I pushing the envelope too far?

Is anyone out there doing this? In other words, are you restating for PPA with a 1/1/2014 date if nothing changes in the safe harbor notice?

Thanks.

Does anyone know about any court decision that found an actuary was a plan fiduciary, or at least that a complaint sufficiently alleged that an actuary was a plan fiduciary?

If a Plan allows a person to defer immediately upon date of hire, can that Plan apply an age 21 and 1 Year of Service on the Safe Harbor Matching. Basically, do deferrals and the Safe Harbor Match need to use the same standard for Plan entry?

I just started working with a new proposal system and one of the fields to enter in is "Employer's Combined Marginal Tax Rate".

Could someone help me figure out what this means?

Could it be the average of the owners individual tax bracket and the companies tax bracket?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

ALEX

We are TPA for a safe harbor nonelective plan that is terminating. The practice was sold (asset sale) on January 6, and all the employees terminated, but the corporation was kept alive and continued to generate income, which resulted in the owner making a full 401k contribution.

I believe i am correct in stating that to terminate the plan, the 3% safe harbor contribution must be made AND the plan must be subject to ADP testing. The testing would not go well, as there were no deferrals taken from the 6 days of employee pay. It would seem to me that the best thing to do would be to make a QNEC, since the 6 days of compensation won't be much. Right now, I'm thinking that we need 4% of pay to pass testing.

The question is whether we can apply the 3% safe harbor contribution toward testing, such that the employer would only need to fund an additional 1%. i would think so, but want to make sure before we give it the thumbs up.

Any assistance during this very busy time is most appreciated!

Dog

Can a plan file the form 5500- SF if they hold a Partnership as one of their assets for the 5 key employees? It is valued annually.

We receive revenue sharing from mutual fund company that we use to offset against our TPA fees to the plan sponsor. We have not yet been in a position where our fees are less than our revenue sharing for the year, but that will likely change for a few clients soon. Is it acceptable for us as the TPA to take whatever excess in revenue sharing exists at year end and write a check back to the plan sponsor? We prefer not to simply keep a "credit" on our books for any excess. Are there any other acceptable ways to handle this?

Can't believe I'm dealing with Plan Design right now the week before the 15th BUT can someone please help me.

I have a new 403(b) for 2015 and the advisor has said let's use auto enrollment. Well, I asked which kind. They said not the one that auto increases.

To be honest, in 24 years, I've never had one of these type plans. Can someone please tell me the differences and why one vs the other.

I do know that the original auto enrollment or negative election is simply a percentage goes in unless they say otherwise. However, you cannot withdraw after the fact correct? Also, what is the postives of this vs

ACA -

vs

EACA -

vs

QACA - I know this comes with a safe harbor requirement, can be withdrawn, has a vesting schedule.

Thank You,

Employer terminated 401(k) Plan and he rolled his account balance to his DB Plan in March 2014. At the time of the roller the participant had not attained the age of 70 1/2 ( turned 70 1/2 in Sept 2014).

Participant's first RMD from the DB plan is 4/1/2015, however, he has elected to take first payment in 2014 to avoid two payments in 2015.

since the 401(k) was rolled before he attained 70 1/2 I am trying to determine when does the rollover get included in calculating the RMD. My thought is the rollover get included when calculating the 2015 RDM.

Thoughts

Plan established in 2012 had no eligible ee's except the owner and so was an "EZ filer" but exempt because plan had less than $250K.

Now in 2013 there are eligibles. What do I do? Will I get a letter? Is there a way to avoid it?

So...who do you think will be taking on the task of filing these forms? I'm playing with the idea and pondering fees.

Are corrective amendments permited with a safe harbor plan?

I know you can't amend a safe harbor plan (expecially after year end) but what if you have a situation where you need to - does that take you out of safe harbor?

Multiemployer defined benefit Plan.

Plan says that a Participant can return to work after retirement for up to 40 hours with no suspension of benefits (this Plan applies it to both early retirement and normal retirement).

So a Participant is receiving a retirement benefit of, say, $1,000/month. He goes back to work only 30 hours a month, so his benefit is not suspended. Per the CBA, the employer is required to make hourly contributions of $6.00/hour to the Pension plan.

My questions:

1) What does the Plan do with the $6.00/hour coming in from the employer for this retired Participant who is receiving $1,000/month? The administrator can't recalculate the Participant's benefit monthly because the Participant had more contributions coming in.

2) Can the Plan have a provision that says if a Participant returns to work, but for less hours than needed to kick in a suspension of benefits, that the Participant will not get an increase in his accrued benefit and, instead, the money will go into the Plan's operating fund?

Keep in mind that I don't feel this is a problem if the Participant returns to work for greater than 40 hours. His benefit would be suspended in that case, so any contributions coming in would go toward an increased benefit (which would be easy to re-calculate at the time he re-retires).

Thanks.

Company was acquired effective 6/1/14. Asset Sale. Prior plan terminated.

Acquired employees given prior service credit for eligibility and vesting.

For testing purposes and applying the otherwise excludable rule, what DOH should be used? 6/1/14 or original DOH.

A plan states that you are immediately eligible for deferring into a 403(b) unless you are in certain class of employees then you are excluded. It states "If you are a member of a class of employees identified below, you are not an eligible employee for all plan purposes" The employees who are excluded are 1)Nonresident aliens 2) employees who normally work less than 20 hours per week and 3) student employees.

Would the universal availability rule apply here? I would think the word "all" would be the key word and that it would apply for matching eligibility, which is 24 months of service and age 21

Ultimately any employee regardless of hours worked should be eligible to defer, yes?

I'm filing a 2013 Welfare Benefit plan. Were there any changes for 2013? Someone in my office seems to remember and ASPPA ASAP about it, but I cannot find it.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

I have a client who just found out the plan failed ADP for 2011. We have calculated refund to HCE and will use self-correction to deposit a QNEC to the NHCEs of around $700 + interest.

It looks like the 10% penalty on the 5330 is only calculated on the excess, not the earnings - correct?

Also, since the correction is being made in 2013, do we have to file 5330s for multiple years? I am thinking it is only 1 filing, for 2011, and the IRS will assess penalties/interest due to the fact that the filing and penalty payment are late. Or do we have to file a 5330 for 2011, 2012, 2013... like you do when you have late deferrals that go more than 1 plan year?

Thanks!

Is there a chart in existence a Relius / McCay Hochman, etc., that compares the differences between IRA's and 401(k)'s with respect to how effective they are at protecting assets?

This is a question that comes up a lot, and now I have one specifically related to tax liens. Now, I have been very clear that I can't give legal advice on the matter, but I did say I would check and see if I could find an article on the topic.