PGWilliams

My employer has a 401K that does not have a "true up" clause. This was a huge surprise to me and I discovered this when they were withholding too much money for my 401K and I hit the federal limit 3 months before the end of the year. I thus was informed that I was no longer eligible for the employer match because I wasn't contributing to the 401K anymore since I'd maxed out the federal limit. Because the larger-than-expected withholding was due to a mistake made by the accounting department, I asked if they could just use the option in the 401K to make a discretionary deposit to provide the missed matching in the form of a bonus, but I was told it was somehow "illegal" to do that without any explanation. My plan provider says they are within their legal options to provide me, and only me, a bonus to cover the difference and they have many avenues in which to justify it. The plan is a safe harbor plan and I am a HCE. I'm getting conflicting information from everything I've read and my plan provider. What are my options here? It appears my company is dragging their feet to run out the clock so they can claim there is nothing they can do about the problem. My understanding is even as an HCE under a safe harbor plan, they could give me a bonus so long as the total did not exceed 4% of my income. Am I correct here? Any thoughts on this? I'm not an accountant nor am I a benefits specialist and I would love some help understanding all of this.