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I have received an unusual question from an attorney related to a Defined Benefit Plan for a Self-employed individual: Does the sole-proprietor who establishes the plan have to reside and work in the United States? Not sure of the specifics behind this, but I would think you'd have to reside here, and the source of your self-employment income would have to be from business conducted in the US. Thanks for any replies.

Definitely full report. Surprised the DOL hasn't rejected a filing with just the opinion letter. Also attach schedule of investments and reportable transactions. They're a separate requirement.

Thanks. DC Plan so no DB issues. Kind of my thought as well.

A very large plan with 3,300 or so participants terminates 500 participants (15.1% of the plan size) in 2016. The auditor asks the TPA whether or not this constitutes a partial plan termination and the answer from the TPA is no, since the termination represented less than 20% of the participants in the plan. However, the auditor is aware that an additional 700 employees (25% of the remaining participants) have/will be terminated in 2017. The plan is not fully terminating per se, just reorganizing, and will continue to operate going forward. Therefore, knowing what the auditor knows, is there a partial plan termination for 2016? Definitely 2017, but, given the facts and circumstances of this, the argument could be made that the partial plan termination affects 2016 as well. Thanks for any replies.

Are bonuses subject to a "special election"? Might have a bearing on this...

A plan subject to audit makes a discretionary match on an annual basis; however, they do not make the payment until the end of the year, so it is deducted on a cash basis on the company financial statements. The auditor, for the 2016 audit, is asking to see a calculation of the annual discretionary match, but the sponsor says that it will not be determined until sometime in November, and thus the 2016 match will be deducted on the 2017 corporate return. The auditor does not want to release the financials without a determination of the match for 2016. If the determination is in November, the October 16 deadline for filing the Form 5500 will be missed. What are the ramifications here? Thanks for any replies.......

Employer contributions technically do not need to be until the due date of the business return, including extension. Therefore, I don't think you have a late remittance issue here, and you do not have an operational failure.

You still prepare a comparative statement, but the prior year is "Compiled" and is noted as such in the auditor's opinion letter.

Thanks, no attribution issues, got to check on the ASG issue. No plan at B, A wants to avoid contributions for B employees.

Controlled groups give me a headache; anyone have an opinion on this (BTW, I think it is a controlled group)? Individual A owns 100% of X LLC which has no employees. X owns 50% of Company B which has employees. The other 50% of Company B is owned by another individual. Can Individual A make contributions to a 401k which is under X LLC without any obligation to employees of Company B?

Does anybody care to comment on if a true ERISA Crime policy would meet the need of an ERISA Bond? Not quite sure of the answer. Any replies would be appreciated!

Here is a question that I don't know the answer to, I don't do that much work in the HSA field: Couple gets married in October, 2016. Spouse, who is a Schedule C individual and who had her own HSA, gets added to her husband's HDHP plan at his work. He also has an HSA. Question is whether she could still contribute to her own HSA, for 2016, before 4/15/17. Thanks very much for any replies!

Thank you gentlemen. The excess per participant ranges from $15 to $410. Think we'll leave this decision in the hands of the new TPA.

A plan has a matching contribution of 50% of deferrals up to a maximum match of $500. During the 2015 plan year, the old TPA (the plan changed TPA 's on 1/1/16) found 20 participants who received match in excess of the $500, to the tune of $3,800. The old TPA and the plan auditor provided the amount of the excess to the new TPA and has requested the new TPA to move the excess to the Plan forfeiture account. The new TPA now asks whether earnings should be included in the amounts transferred to the forfeiture account. I don't think earnings are applicable here, but want to see opinions nonetheless. Thanks for any replies.

The doctor has to take a MRD from the 401(k) Plan; can't combine with the IRA. Multiple IRA MRD's can be combined and taken from one IRA only, if the owner has multiple IRA's.

I'm having a major brain freeze regarding this question, so here goes. Company A merged into Company B on 10-1-2016. Company A sponsored a safe-harbor 401(k) plan (4% match), and the safe-harbor contribution had been made at each pay period. All employees of A "terminated" on 9-30-16 and began working for B on 10-1-16. Company A remains in existence (to collect outstanding receivables, etc) and the owners of the company remain "employed" by A. The owners are asking if they could make a discretionary profit sharing contribution, over and above the safe-harbor match, on their behalf, omitting the rank and file employees who were all terminated on 9-30-16. I have made myself nuts with the following questions: Could they make this contribution only for themselves, as the contribution (benefit) would only benefit HCE's? As the Safe-Harbor match satisfied the Top-Heavy requirement, would they need to provide the 3% TH to those who did not receive the match regardless of question #1? Any responses, as always, are greatly appreciated!

I have always used 25 cents per page, so for a large report, the cost could be greater than $5.00

An employer has maintained multiple 401(k) plans for various nursing homes over the years. It was decided to merge all of these plans into a multiple employer plan with an effective date of 1-1-16. The TPA of the employer, hoping to make the 2015 audit of 5 of the plans that are merging the final audit of the plan (in a sense trying to avoid a one day audit for 2016), has indicated that the assets "merged" on 1-1-16. At 12/31/15, the assets were still invested in the various mutual funds maintained by the old plans, as they were to transfer in-kind on 1-1-16. The TPA, in filling out the 2015 Form 5500, is maintaining that this is the final return for the old plans, and is trying to show, on Schedule H, the assets as of 12/31/15, with a liability "due to new plan" in the same amount, thus zeroing out the assets as of the end of the plan year. Their software is rejecting this treatment. Both the TPA and plan auditor is maintaining that the 2015 Form 5500 filing and certified audit are to be considered "final". I have seen this happen in the past, but it was many years ago. What are folks opinion of the above scenario? Thanks for any replies.

Thanks Flyboy, I hadn't thought of that option!

Company, for a Welfare Plan with a PYE of 12-31-2014, filed the 5500 with 2 Schedule A's, with a policy date of 3-1-13 to 2-28-14. Company merged during 2015, but still must file a (final?) 2015 Form 5500 with Schedule A's for the policy date of 3-1-14 to 2-28-15. But what about the Schedule A period 3-1-15 to 12-31-15 (all Welfare benefits were terminated 12-31-15, and the Schedule A's have been obtained for this time period)? Question is can a Final Form 5500 for 2015 be prepared using the 2-28-15 policy date Schedule A's? Or is there another filing in there somewhere??

As an aside, I filed a 2016 short year (1-1-16 to 4-30-16) Form 8955-SSA through FIRE, and it was accepted.

rcline, thank you for your reply, that makes the most sense IMO. mphs, the SEP administrator essentially said "Ask your accountant" when the husband went to them and made the request as you note above.

A spouse with a small Schedule C has been deducting a SEP contribution on the joint Form 1040 for many years; the deduction ranges between 2,000 and 3,000 each year. The taxpayer informed us today that this contribution has, for the past many years, been made to his instead of to her SEP account. The taxpayer is a partner in a partnership, and has large amounts of SE income, so the deduction is allowable each year based on the SE income on the 1040. The question becomes what needs to be done to move the contributions from the husband to wife's SEP, and what tax ramifications are there. The taxpayer asked the SEP custodian what to do and they deferred to the accounting firm who does the individual return, who then asked me (I am the TPA of the husband's company's 401(k) plan) for my opinion. This is one I haven't heard before..... Any replies would be helpful, thanks!

A Section 125 plan is designed to reimburse a participant up to $400 of qualified dental services. A participant is asking whether they can purchase an individual dental insurance policy, and be reimbursed the $400 that the employer offers towards the cost of the policy. I think the answer is no, but I am not sure. Any replies would be appreciated. Thanks.

I am both a TPA and an auditor. I don't know whether to smile or frown at BG's comment....