late safe harbor notice

[alanm]

What if you elect a safe habor 4% match 30 days before the beginning of the year but you give participants notice of a 3% PS election by mistake. Then a month after the plan year starts you give another notice saying the 3% notice was a mistake it is really 4%. Does that invalidate the 4% election? Or can the mistake be corrected even though it wasn't timely?

[Blinky the 3-eyed Fish]

The purpose of giving the notice, especially in regards to the safe harbor matching contribution, is to alert participants timely. There is the great potential that participants would have deferred some/more had they known the match was to be provided. I can't fathom there would be the availability to chalk it up as error at this stage.