Santo Gold

Hoping for any comments as to whether this would fly or not: We have a small employer looking to start a safe harbor 401k for 2017. Its 11/10/17 so the deadline for 2017 has long passed. However, could they start one 12/15/217 and have the plan year run from 12/15/17 - 12/14/18. Have a short plan year 12/15/18 - 12/31/18. Then, go to calendar year for 2019. Their company fiscal year is calendar, so does that automatically sink this idea? They have 3 employees, 2 of which are owners. The owners would be receiving large bonuses which they could make in late December, 2017, with the owners deferring most of that to the 401k plan in late 2017. They then have 11+ months to make 2018 deferrals. do nothing for the 16 day SPyear, and then pick up on a calendar year basis for 2019. The other employee will not be putting anything into the plan. given what is likely to be a high contribution rate for the 2 HCEs for 2017, a QNEC for the other employee would be pretty expensive and not desirable. Thanks

Thank you both. I wasn't aware of the QNEC point that Tom brought up.

My title kind of asks my question: If we have a cross-tested safe harbor plan (3% SH). We want the owner to receive 15% of pay total ER contribution (3% SH + 12% PS) and everyone else to receive 5% (3% SH + 2% PS). Does the PS portion of the contribution have to be 100% vested? Thanks

IRS has brought to our attention that two 1099Rs were filed for an individual. They both contained the same data ($21,000 distribution). It was a cash distribution and the individual reported both amounts as income from both 1099Rs, so he reported more than he should have. Two Form 945s were filed as well, both showing $4,200 paid in taxes. The IRS is looking for the other $4,200 since they only received $4,200 and were expecting $8,400 (based on both 945s). How would you go about fixing this on the 1099Rs? They would have to file a corrected form, but what figure would be used? If we show "$0.00", since there were two forms, could that be interpreted as he had no distribution at all for the year? Is there a fix or would it be best to try to work with the IRS via reply to their correspondence? Same with 945? Thanks

Thank you for your replies.

ER has sponsored a SIMPLE IRA for several years for company employees. Final EE contributions for 2016 plan year deposited in 2016. Started a 401k 1/1/2017. Just found out now (8/2017) that the 2016 ER contribution to the SIMPLE has not yet been deposited. Is this 401k still OK for 2017 since the SIMPLE deposit is for 2016, but being deposited in 2017?

Is there a waiver required in order to establish a 403(b) Plan for a charter school in PA, allowing the school to not participate in the state's PSER program? If so is there much to that?

Employer A is part of a controlled group consisting of one other larger company (company B), but has a great deal of autonomy from the CG. They are permitted to take part in Company B's 401k plan. However, The owner of Company A is an HCE in the Company B plan and keeps getting hit hard with 401k returned deferrals since Company A plan is not safe harbored. Can company A start their own safe harbored 401k plan immediately or do they have to wait until the start of a new year to have a new plan effective? Would anything need to be done in Company B plan to then exclude Company A employees from being eligible for Company B plan? I do not think that having Company A employees eligible for both plans would be desirable, so I would assume of a Joinder Agreement allows Company A employees to be in the Company B Plan, it would just be a matter of changing that agreement? Company A employees have money in Company B plan. Once Company A has their own plan, can Company A employees move their money out of Company B plan? Would that be via distribution or transfer? Since no one is terminating employment, I would think a transfer out of B plan to A plan would be the only option. Both plans would have to be tested together correct? The contributions in A plan might be better than B plan, but if B plan has more HCEs, there is a decent chance both plans pass 401(a)(4), would you agree? Thanks

Can an individual age 50 have a 457(b) deposit of $24,000 in that plan as well as in a 403(b) plan? Thanks

Thanks to all for the great replies. Would rolling it into a USA IRA be an option, or would similar restrictions apply? Thanks

We have an employee in a current USA 401k plan who has a large retirement plan account in a Mexico-based retirement plan from his previous employer (non-related to the current employer in the USA). The USA plan accepts rollovers from other plans, IRAs, etc. But since the Mexico plan is not a 401(a) type of account, I assume this could NOT be rolled over into the USA plan, is that correct? Any way he could roll it into the USA plan? Thanks

I know this has been asked before, but could not find it (easily) on a prior thread, so... Employer wants to have a safe harbor plan eff 1/1/17. Its 12/1/16 and the safe harbor notice is due. Or is it? Is there an exception to the 30 days before the plan year starts requirement for start up 401k SH plans? We'd like to have this effective for all of 2017, but there a some plan design questions not settled yet so we cannot have the document signed by 12/1/16. Thanks

Can any company that is part of a controlled group adopt a SIMPLE? If so, would it follow then that either all members of the CG MUST be eligible for the plan or that all members are included for testing purposes, even if not eligible to be in the plan (which would seem to take the simple out of SIMPLE). Is it even permitted for all members of a CG to adopt a single SIMPLE? Thanks

Is there an easy online way to electronically pay the 20% amount withheld on a cash distribution? We have a small client who has brokerage accounts for the people in the plan. This is the first time they will have a cash distribution. The brokerage account will not pay the 20%. The client does not want to open up a bank account for what will likely be a 1 time only transaction. Payroll (correctly) will not accept deposit of the 20% and then transmit it to the IRS. If the 20% was under $2,500, it is allowable to pay it at year end when filing Form 945. But, the amount is well above that. I've read on other post that Penchecks could work. But is there an IRS link that could be used to pay the tax online? Even if it costs a few $$$, that might be OK. Thanks

I was able to file it as is, but when I review my submissions ("filed" forms) for all clients, under the STATUS column, it says "filing received" for all of my plans, but this is the only one that I can still "click" on, and when I do, I get the Z-003 message. So, based on what Laura A has stated, this is a warning, not an error, the filing was "received".... is there anything for me to complain about other than I don't like having a filed form with a warning message attached to it?

This is what DOL told me as well, for the 2015 filing. I may try "kicking it upstairs" when I call back again.

This was a 2015 filing. I am sure I have had plan name changes in the past and this never came up. Sounds like it is new for 2015.

I meant to say the 5500 software DID NOT flag this as an error. Its the DOL/EFAST that once it was uploaded to that site, indicated there was a problem.

The 5500 software did flag this as an error. Once it was uploaded to EFAST we validated it and the error message keeps catching it. As I said, I talked to someone at the DOL/EFAST about this and twice he confirmed that in fact this is a correct error message (Z-003). But, I know that he is not correct, at least when he says that changing the plan name means that this is a new plan, therefore needs a new plan number, need to terminate the old plan, etc.

Yes, I did check that the employer name changed. The error message is referencing the plan name being different though. No place to check for that......

Employer ID number did not change.

And that is exactly what was done with the PPA document restatement for this 401k plan. We changed the company and plan name. But after talking to the DOL today via the EFAST website, I was told that the Z-003 error message pertained to the change in plan name and, sounding rather convincing, pointed me to page 15 of the instructions which would state that the plan name must match the plan name from the prior year's return. The instructions do in fact state that the plan name should match last year's plan name and I did not see anywhere (in the instructions) that an amendment to change the name is acceptable.

When a company changes its name, can it also change the name of its retirement Plan? I didn't realize that the answer is apparantly "no", but when filing a 5500 showing a new company name and plan name, it keeps getting kicked out of the EFAST system because of the plan name change. Is this correct, can't change a plan name?

The Plan Administrator can be liable for plan violations. But is that the same thing as saying the individual is personally liable? In this case, the employer is the plan administrator; no indivdual is named a the plan administrator. There is an individual in the company that handles the deposit of 403(b) contributions to the plan. The same individual signs and files form 5500. If there is a violation that results in a fine or penalty, it is the company (which is the plan administrator) not the individual carrying out the duties of plan administrator, that is liable, is that correct?

The controller for a company that sponsors a 403(b) asked whether he could be personally liable for errors or problems that might occur with the plan. He said that at a recent seminar, the speaker suggested this is the case. I know that if he were to take any criminal action he could be personal liable. But the Speaker mentioned that if, for example, contributions are late to be deposited, he could be personally liable. I do not believe that this is correct. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.