Waiver of Accountant's Opinion

[Guest NeophiteTPA]

A large profit sharing plan is in the process of terminating. At the beginning of the year it still had account balances for more than 100 participants.

Is an audit still required in this instance or could there be an exception available that would enable them not to incur the expense of an audit?

I do not see that they would qualify for a waiver 2520.104-46 since that applies only to plan with fewer than 100 participants.

Thanks for the assistance

[Guest BXO]

I know of no waiver, but I know of a firm of 150 people that received a penalty of over $50,000 for not attaching an audit report to a final large-firm 5500 filing and couldn't get the audit done for some time. The penalty was eventually reduced by 90%.

[JanetM]

There is no waiver of audit. They will have to do it or face the penalty.

[Bill Presson]

A large profit sharing plan is in the process of terminating. At the beginning of the year it still had account balances for more than 100 participants.

Is an audit still required in this instance or could there be an exception available that would enable them not to incur the expense of an audit?

I do not see that they would qualify for a waiver 2520.104-46 since that applies only to plan with fewer than 100 participants.

Thanks for the assistance

I assume it is a calendar year plan. If the plan distributions can be completed prior to July 31, 2007, you can use the exception in 29 CFR 2520.104-50 and just do one audit for the two years combined.

That ought to save some money at least.