"Employee is terminated on 4/22/24, his pension paperwork is produced with a Benefit Commencement Date of 5/1/2024. He is then asked to work on an 'on-call' basis, so a job is opened for him, but he only works one day for 8 hours on 5/18/24. Plan is now terminating. Plan doc says in order to be considered rehired, e/e has to work 40 hours. Under this defn, 5/18 would not be considered re-employment and he could go and roll his money out. But then the plan doc is vague on how employment is defined (just say employee is any person in the employ of the Company). For vesting purposes, he has not incurred a break in service. The definition of 'Eligible Employee' excludes temporary workers. Can he take action on his pension as of date of his termination (4/22) or not until he's done working (i.e., after 5/18?) Is he is considered re-employed on 5/18 because he's on the books with a job set up? Or does he actually have to work 40 hours a week? If the plan is vague do I apply common law principles to decide whether he's a temp or an employee?"

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"Currently have a SIMPLE IRA. Wants to add a DB plan for 2024. I thought cannot do it, what am I missing?"

"We have a Safe Harbor Plan that would like to add Automatic Contribution Arrangement (ACA) mid-year for 2024. I have 2 questions. [1] Can a Safe Harbor Plan add an ACA feature? To me, it seems like a Safe Harbor plan can only be a QACA, so ACA feature cannot be added. Is that correct? [2] If the ACA feature can be added to a Safe Harbor Plan, can the feature be added Mid-Year (I realize that a Safe Harbor plan cannot be changed to QACA mid-year)?"

"I am self-employed and have been contributing to a solo 401k since 2022, but I think that I've made some mistakes that I need help resolving. I've asked my CPA and his 401k plan administrator, but they are unsure of how to help me. In January 2022 I opened a Traditional Solo 401k and Roth Solo 401k at ETrade. When setting up the accounts, I used Plan Numbers 001 and 002 as directed by ETrade. The Plan Sponsor was my sole proprietorship. I made zero contributions to the Traditional and $3,000 to the Roth. A few months later I decided to establish an S-Corp, and I opened up another Solo 401k account at Vanguard with the S-Corp as the sponsor. For this account I used Plan Number 001. Since I didn't plan to operate the sole proprietorship any longer, I closed the two accounts at ETrade and rolled the Roth 401k balance into an existing Roth IRA that I hold at Vanguard. I am now realizing that I should have filed Form 5500-EZ after closing the ETrade accounts. I am also wondering if I may have violated the successor plan rule by erroneously considering the sole proprietorship and S-Corp to be separate employers rather than an affiliated / controlled group. Questions:

1. Will I need to file two separate late returns using Form 5500-EZ and pay the associated $1,000 in penalties for the ETrade accounts that were closed? Or is it possible that I may only need to file one considering I made zero contributions to the Traditional account?
2. Do the sole proprietorship and the S-Corp qualify as affiliated employers? If so, did I violate the successor plan rule by opening the Vanguard 401k within 12 months of terminating the ETrade accounts? What penalties would this incur and how would I rectify this?
3. If the sole prop and S-Corp are affiliated, do I need to amend the plan sequence number on my current Vanguard solo 401k account to be 003?'

"Non PBGC covered combo plans sponsored by a corporation with the employees and a sole-prop. Joe owns both entities. Needs to use 31% rule. Under the corporation satisfied the 31% rule. Under the sole-prop only deducting CB for Joe only. No DC deduction. If you combine them for total deduction, fails 31% rule. However, since they are separately deducting the contributions, I think it is ok to test deductions separately. Am I wrong?"

"How can a company's owner 'use up' his Retained Earnings by utilizing/opening a qualified retirement plan? I know a tiny bit about accounting, and I have a potential client (architect) who wants to reduce his RE by opening a Profit Sharing/Cash Balance combo. He's 59 years old. Advice? Knowledge?"