Terminating a 401(k) during VCP submission process

[katieinny]

We've assisted an employer with a VCP submission for his Safe Harbor 401(k) plan. He's made his employees whole and we're hoping the IRS will say good job, you're done. But of course, no one can assume that. We suggested that the employer not terminate the plan until the IRS review is done. We haven't even received the Acknowledgement Letter yet, so we're a long way from the end. In the submission, we've asked the IRS to allow the employer to only make a Safe Harbor contribution for half of 2014. I've explained to the employer that that might not get approved, but we had to at least ask. The employer really wants to terminate the plan now. I suppose if the IRS requires adjustments, we could get it done somehow even with a terminated plan, but I'd rather not. What would you do? Allow him to terminate, or make him wait?

[ETA Consulting LLC]

I do it all the time. You're right, though. You will have to anticipate what, if anything, additional the IRS may require you to do. In my cases, I received the signed Compliance statement from the IRS at the later date with no additional action. If there were additional action, I did not anticipate it having a great impact on that terminated and distributed plan.

In my instance, they are pretty much streamlined corrections; so the chance of the IRS coming back requiring additional changes was nil.

Good Luck!