Nichol C

You’re reading it correctly. Under the updated rules, a plan can file the 5500-SF if it has fewer than 100 participants with account balances on the first day of the plan year. The only other things I’d check are whether the plan falls into a category that still requires the full 5500... For example, being part of a pooled employer arrangement or holding employer securities.

A lot depends on whether the correct amounts were actually withheld and deposited to the SIMPLE IRA. The deferral percentage should be calculated on gross pay regardless of whether the election was pre-tax or Roth, so it may help to confirm, if you haven’t already, that the correct deferrals were withheld for each pay period. If the correct amounts were withheld and deposited and the only issue was that payroll treated them as after-tax, then it’s really just a payroll clean-up. You’d just want to make sure the year-to-date wages and the W-2s show the right pre-tax treatment. If the correct amounts weren’t withheld or didn’t make it into the SIMPLE IRA, then you’d follow the SIMPLE IRA Fix-It Guide option that best matches the situation, which @justanotheradmin shared above.