Opting Out of HAFTA for 2013

[Andy the Actuary]

Presumably the drop-dead date for opting out of HAFTA for 2013 for a calendar year plan is 9/15/2014 for 430 and 9/30/2014 for 436.

9/15/2014 is the last date a contribution for 2013 could be counted on the 2013 SB. 9/30/2014 is the AFTAP drop-dead date whereby presumptions apply.

I made all of this up so please feel free to disagree!

[Effen]

You are probably right, but most of the comment letters are asking for additional time. The way it COULD work is that you would still need to file by 10/15, but you would be permitted to amend the 2013 filing with an attachment on the 2014 SB.

Obviously, we won't know for sure until the IRS issues guidance.

[Hojo]

My guess would actually be 10/15 (the filing deadline of the 5500). Reason being that we often have clients make contributions prior to having final census data (knowing that it would fall under within the min/max corridor whether they made $0 or $260k).

I always figure that nothing is final (assumptions or otherwise) until the filing is received.

[AndyH]

Any whispers on timing of IRS guidance?

[Andy the Actuary]

Not to be negative, but sometime near the n-th hour of September 15 or thereafter. If felt no reason to hold up the show as long as good-faith compliance follwed.

I've already had my clients do whatever opting they needed to in good faith. I used an election similar to what was used to opt out of MAP-21.

[Hojo]

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-14-53.pdf