Failure to Make Matching Contributions

[oldman63]

A governmental 403(b) plan, effective 2/1/2016, with plan year ending 8/31, provides for a fixed employer matching contribution of 100% match on elective deferrals up to 3% of compensation.  However, the employer failed to make the required matching contributions.

Thus the plan has an operational error and under EPCRS, as updated by Rev. Proc. 2008-50, mandates that the employer implement correction method that would restore the plan and its participants to the position they would have been in had the failure not occurred. Such measures would include:

1.  Make matching contributions on behalf of the affected participants retroactive to the time such contributions should have been made.

2.  Provide earnings from the time the matching contributions would have first been made.

3.  Redo 415 testing for the years in which operation failure occurred.

Are there other self-correction measures the employer should take?

[Bob the Swimmer]

SCP and VCP are very different solutions under EPCRS. I'm not sure that you can self-correct this 

late and egregious of an error under SCP.

[Luke Bailey]

For self-correction of significant errors need to correct by end of second plan year after year of error. First year of error here ended 8/31/2016, so if plan document required contribution by then (e.g., specified that match would be made on each payroll, or by end of plan year), seems too late for self-correction for first year. But if plan arguably would have allowed contributions for year ending 8/31/2016 to be made by, say, 12/31/2016 and still be timely, may be within EPCRS period for self-correction, I think.