Categorizing employees for Tiered Plans

[Guest SPollock]

I have two questions. Is there a maximum number of different employee categories we can established for a tiered P/S plan. (I have a company that would like to have 10.) Can we categorize employees by years of services; such as Tier #1 - employees with less than 5 years of services, Tier #2 - employees with 5 years to 10 years of services and Tier #3 - employees with more than 10 years services and so on?

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[MWeddell]

The number of groups is immaterial. As long as each group is identifiable under the plan and the identity of particular employees in each group is not subject to employer discretion (and the contribution passes 401(a)(4) testing), there's no problem.

The IRS position is contained in this field memo, which was posted in the what's new section of BenefitsLink a few months ago.

[Guest SPollock]

To: MWeddell

Thank you, the information is very helpful!

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