Leave of Abscence relating to testing

[Guest Achilles]

401(k) plan - In a plan I am performing discrimination testing, there are several people that are on a leave of abscence.

They were on a leave for the entire year of 2000, therefore they have no salary to be tested.

The plan & company still consider them as active, eligible employees.

Generally, everyone in the test should have a salary, which is a determinant in testing.

Should these people be included in the test without a salary, or excluded? I can simply enter a termed date of 12/31/1999 to exclude them, then remove the date after the testing is complete.

It's a large plan, some 4,000 eligibles, so 5-6 people won't have a great impact.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thank You!

[Tom Poje]

there is nothing in the regs to tell you how to handle ees with 0 comp. at last year's ASPA conference, the IRS did say it is reasonable to treat HCEs with 0 comp as ineligible for the year they had 0 comp.

Therefore, it would seem reasonable to treat NHCEs the same way.