Missed Safe Harbor contribution

[JKW]

I have a 9/30/12 401k plan that just finished up their audit and 5500 for that plan year. The plan converted to us in Sept of 2012. The plan makes monthly non-elective safe harbor contributions. During the audit it was discovered that the plan did not make their Aug 2012 contribution. Lost earnings are being deposited into the participants involved. Does a 5330 need to be completed also?

[John Feldt ERPA CPC QPA]

The deadline to make the nonelective safe harbor contribution is 12 months after the end of the plan year. If the plan year end was 9/30/2012, they have until 9/30/2013 to put the contribution into the plan before it is considered late (ignoring the deduction issue here).

So, unless the plan's document spells out something else, they do not really appear to be late in making those contributions just yet. The "missed earnings" are technically not really missed yet either then, since the deposit deadline has not been missed. That makes the contribution being made for the missed earnings into a potential poroblem. It's really just a contribution now, not missed earnings. So, does the plan spell out how employer contributions are to be allocated (maybe each person is in their own allocation rate group)?