Secure Act - removal of ER s/h notice rqurmnt

per Secure Act, safe harbor nonelective plans no longer need to provide the annual safe harbor notice every year.

So, for plan that provided notice in 2018 for 2019, no notice will be provided in 2019 for 2020. Question is - does that make the safe harbor nonelective contribution optional because no notice was provided that it is indeed being contributed? Or am I totally offbase here.?

8 hours ago, TPApril said:

Or am I totally offbase here.?

Kind of...

If your document says 3% nonelective, that contribution is required whether you provided a safe harbor notice or not.  The notice requirement was removed as a consequence of adding retroactive safe harbor nonelective election.  It wouldn't make sense to require a notice if you intend to be safe harbor when the new year starts but waive the notice requirement for the plan that is ADP/ACP tested and elects to be safe harbor on September 1.

If you truly want the nonelective contribution to be "optional", you would need to amend to ADP/ACP tested prior to first day of the plan year, amend to be safe harbor mid year if you opt in, and then amend to ADP/ACP tested prior to the next plan year in order to have the same choice in the following year.

Ive decided it takes about the same time and effort for me to track the different safe harbors to figure out which one HAS to have a notice, Im just going to continue with a notice for all my SH plans.