"I'm getting conflicting opinions on this issue. The plan document needs to be signed by 9/30/23, but does an account need to be established by 9/30/23? My client, owner only, wants to do a safe harbor 401(k) for 2023. American Funds is telling him they need at least 30 days to set up an account on their system, and they are telling him it is too late to do a safe harbor 401(k) as they can't set the plan up by 9/30. I believe he would be better served to go with a 401(k)/profit sharing plan, effective 1/1/23, sign the document 9/30/2023, with deferrals to start 10/1/23 and remitted at least on a monthly basis?"

"I know a payroll-based SH Match must be deposited by the end of the calendar quarter after the quarter in which the deferrals were taken. Obviously, for a calendar year plan, those QE dates are 3/31, 6/30, 9/30, 12/31. What about for off-calendar plans? For a PY that starts on 3/1, do they still adhere to calendar quarter dates? Or do they use 5/31, 8/31, 11/30 and 2/28?"

"I believe I understood Ilene Ferenczy to say that if a LTPT employee exists, and chooses not to participate, the plan is subject to ERISA and can no longer file a 5500EZ in 2024 if it otherwise qualified to file as an EZ filer in past years. So if the plan is subject to ERISA, the plan is also now subject to the bonding rules in 2024. Case in point: Husband/wife plan only with an ineligible part-time employee for many years. Part-time employee is defined as LTPT employee on 1/1/24; chooses not to participate. Plan holds $5 million in non-qualifying assets. Now they have to get a bond in place on 1/1/24 for $5 million to bond their OWN assets (as if they would steal the assets from themselves, seriously!) or subject themselves to an audit for 2024. And they also have to disclose to the DOL, and the public, information about their plan. Any thoughts? I think I would choose to terminate the plan at this point."

"In the case of a controlled group where one company is covered by the plan and the other is not. Is it the case that as long as we pass coverage, the 2nd company can be excluded?"

"Individual 401K Profit sharing plan that was managed by a financial advisor for 10 years. She is deceased and I have no records of filed 5500-EZ forms. I am in the process of preparing historical returns for the past 12 years under the penalty relief program: [1] Is there any way to determine if 5500-EZ forms have already been filed? [2] If not, what is the risk of duplicate returns that should be similar but, if she did file, she may have used cash basis rather than my preferred accural method."

"I am new to 403(b) testing. Can a 403(b) run the ACP test uy excluding all employees that would not have met a Age 21, 1 year with dual entry eligibility? Like we do for 401(k) ADP/ACP testing?"

"I'm using [the EBSA VFCP calculator] -- please correct me if I'm doing this wrong. First one on 04/15/2022 is when they took 99.61 out of the persons check and had a match which was also amounted in 99.61 which equals = 199.22) The company then paid 199.22 into the 401k account on 8/30/2023 and the final payment shows in adp it went through on 8/30/2023. Please see attached screen shot. Edit: what is the difference between Recovery Date and Final?"

"I can't seem to find any guidance on filing the attestations where the carrier or method of funding has changed since 2020. For example, a plan was self-insured from 2020 through 2022, then became fully insured in 2023. The fully insured carrier's attestation would not cover (in reality, even if it does on paper) the plan's compliance for 2020, 2021, and 2022 when it was self-funded. In that case, if the self-funded TPA is not filing the attestation for the plan sponsor for years before 2023 (as some are not) would the plan sponsor file an additional attestation on its own? Presumably similar circumstances will continue to arise for non-calendar year plans that change carriers/funding methods."

"Plan discontinued SH match in April of 2020 due to business hardship from COVID. Never amended the plan to remove SH for 2020, 2021 or 2022. Restarted match in May of 2022. Plan filed a VCP to retro amend plan out of SH status for 2020-2022. It was approved. How does this impact vesting? The SH Match is 100% vested and the regular match has a 5 year schedule. Is the match that was originally deposited as a 'SH Match' considered fully vested under SH rules or no since the plan was 'amended' to be Non-SH? If deemed to be non-safe harbor could the also retro amend to make the match 100% vested?"