"I just found out a week ago, while having my taxes prepared, that our company offered the SIMPLE IRA plan. I noticed the 'X" on box 13 and to be honest, never looked/noticed before. Please excuse my fail to notice previous years.
I started in 2012 and checked all my past W-2's and all had the check from 2013 on. I asked the owner about this and he setup a meeting with me a few days later. After initial investigation on his part he came to the conclusion that I wasn't aware/notified of the plan and he was concerned and assured me that this was 100% unintentional. He stated the program was established/implemented in 2008 and he's aware that some employees have been contributing and others haven't. I should mention he's VERY hands off in these situations and relies on other parties to take care of HR types of tasks, given we are
so small and we don't have an HR department.
I confirmed with other co-workers and most all were totally unaware as well. One employee in particular has been employed since 2005. Since we've always had 2 facilities (corporate/warehouse), up until 2017, it's feasible to understand a potential communication issue (albeit unlikely) due to 2 sites but still not excusable. The employer recognizes the severity of this and is working with others to understand the impact and come forward with a plan to amend/repair. I want to stay positive and optimistic and take him at his word about the total lack of proper communication and give him the benefit of the doubt with this revelation.
My concern is how something like this (involving possibly up to 10+ employees [past/present]), spread out over that 11-year time frame and how this will possibly be rectified? If I
can assume this was an honest mistake, as the owner stated, can this be fixed by the tools/guidelines in place for this sort of thing? My hope is that it can because I would obviously want this to be a viable program and would like the years I missed out on, to be properly/fairly compensated and have a good program going forward while I'm here.
Basic details: Plan established 2008. Magically appeared on my 2013 W2 and ever since then (box 13). (I will say that the EE that has been with the company since 2005, verified that the checkbox was not checked until 2013 as well so that's a little concerning.) Notification/forms were not presented for a majority of the off-site facility EEs and can't speak for the corporate side EEs. Employer said he signed up for the 3% matching option (I'm aware of how those work since I've been studying the ins and
outs of the SIMPLE IRA program feverishly since I found all this out). Employer did state that our broker did tell everyone but I know this is obviously not true and I haven't seen him since I started in 2012 and he's never spoke to me about anything, that I can be sure of.
Trust me, based on all I've been reading concerning similar situations, I realize the word 'egregious' comes to mind but wanted to find out from the professionals in this forum if this plan is recoverable or a lost cause? I think that explains my predicament."