Controlled Group or Multi Employer Plan??

[Pammie57]

During 2017 a Plan Sponsor bought another company.  The other company had a 401k Plan separate from his original plan.  During 2018, company 2 rolled all account balances into the original 401k Plan (& plans were amended to be merged) .  However, on 12/08/2018 he sold the 2nd company.  The participants' account balances are still in the plan.  The two companies operated separately (in different  states)during 2018.   I hope I am making sense - my question is - do I report this as a controlled group for 2018 or a multi-employe plan? If multi-employer, does anybody have a sample of the "listing" that is required to be attached to the 5500?  They were separate companies again by 12/31/2018....

Comments or experience with this type of situation??

 

[Luke Bailey]

Pammie57, it sounds like when the first company acquired the second, it acquired 100% of the ownership interests? Please confirm.

And during 2018 the workforce of the acquired company remained, by and large, employees of the acquired company, which kept its separate EIN?

And now that the acquired company has been sold again, it took all of its employees, by and large, when it went over to the new acquirer, i.e., the third company?

Finally, the acquirer/third company has not adopted the plan, or at least did not do so in 2018, right?

Subject especially to your response regarding last question, I think you had a single employer plan, because it sounds like the plan was maintained during 2018 by a parent-subsidiary controlled group. But again, the detailed facts are crucial.