"Barber X operates a barber shop as a Schedule C. Another barber ('Y') also works in his shop, who is paid as a contract employee for the past two year. Barber Y has reported her income on her own Schedule C, and contributes to her personal IRA. Barber X marries Barber Y, but the working arrangement remains the same. Barber Y is considering starting her own SIMPLE IRA for her Schedule C income. Can they really maintain two Schedule C's when Barber Y is working in Barber X's shop? Are there any controlled group issues that would affect a SIMPLE IRA due to attribution?"

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"I have a client who was a W-2 employee during January through September of this year. His employer didn't have a 401(k) plan. He made no contributions to other plans. As of October 1, he changed his status to 1099 contractor for the same company. When he changed his status, it triggered deferred compensation: a lump sum of $400,000, which he will receive at the end of this year. For October through the end of the year, he will receive approximately $60,000 of 1099 income from the new consulting business. Both the owner and the spouse are over 50 years old. He wants to max out his Owner K to help defer some of this very large tax bill. Can he use some of the deferred comp? Or can only the 1099 income go into the Owner K? Same question for the wife. It was previously stated that she could receive a contribution, but is her limit subject to the 1099 income, or can the deferred comp dollars count?"

"Dental benefit is provided for management, under 100 persons. It is offered as a fully voluntary benefit for staff. So total covered persons are over 100. I'm trying to figure out if this makes it an ERISA-covered benefit, among other things requiring a Form 5500 be filed."

"Does a change from an integrated formula to a cross-tested formula require a Summary of Material Modification?"

"President of a Chamber of Commerce currently has a Simple IRA. They are starting a 401(k) Plan in 2020. He will turn 70.5 in 2020. He wants to avoid an RMD. My reading of the rules says that for any IRA, there is no 'if still employed' rule, and an RMD must be made. But what if they liquidate the account on December 28, 2019, and don't deposit the check in the 401(k) plan until January 15, 2020? That way, the IRA has zero balance on 12/31/19. The 401(k) plan won't have any balances until 2020."

"So I have a client which, through a clerical error, did not deduct 401k deferrals for the 11/29/19 paycheck. We discovered this yesterday. If they give notification letters out to the affected participants, do they still have to do a QNEC, since it has been such a short period of time and just one payroll? They apparently only do medical deductions 2x per month, but are paid bi weekly, and this was the 3rd pay check for November, so no medical deductions, but someone accidently cleared out the 401k deductions."