Deferrals not withheld

[Bird]

Someone please refresh my memory on current thinking about what should happen if a participant has made an election but nothing was withheld. Is this covered under SCP?

[PAL]

Directly from the IRS web site:

The Fix

As in the case of an erroneous exclusion of an employee from the plan, the remedy requires the employer to make a corrective contribution of 50% of the missed deferral (adjusted for earnings) on behalf of the affected employee. The employee is fully vested in those contributions, which are subject to the same withdrawal restrictions that apply to elective deferrals. However, unlike in the case of mistaken exclusions where the missed deferral amount is estimated based on the ADP for the employee category (e.g., NHCE), in both illustrative examples, the employees’ election deferral amount is known. Thus, the missed deferral and the corresponding corrective contribution (50% of the missed deferral) are based on the participant’s actual election instead of the ADP (i.e., 5% or 3%, respectively) of the NHCEs.

Here is a link that might help...

http://www.irs.gov/retirement/article/0,,id=175716,00.html

PAL

[Bird]

Thanks, that was what I was looking for. In the case in point, the missed deferral was for an HCE, and while the examples on the IRS website both say that they are NHCEs, EPCRS does show an example of an HCE getting a contribution made by the employer when that employee was not given the opportunity to defer, so I think I can conclude that the correction would still apply when elected amounts were not withheld for an HCE (50% of election). It's a non-elective SH plan so ADP is not an issue and matches are not an issue.