"We have a number of clients in FL that were affected this past summer by the hurricanes. Following Hurricane Milton the IRS released a notice that extended prior relief to ALL of FL until May 1, 2025. Recently, we filed 2 of our plans using the information from the notices as a special extension. Both plans were penalized for late filing. Since we have more to file, I am curious if anyone else has experienced this and what you have done to avoid those erroneous penalties?"

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"Calendar year 401k plan has a discretionary annual match with a last day allocation condition and DDR waivers, does not have 1000 hour allocation. Client would like to change mid-year to a payroll based match -- when we amend the plan to remove the last day and add payroll period (not sure if it is retroactive or prospective) but do we need to protect the DDR waiver group? Technically since last day has not been met nothing has accrued."

"A small independent pharmacy. Is it a subject to Title IV or not?"

"I have a non-profit that has moved to an HSA plan for the first time. They have about 8 employees, but only 3 are full-time and receive benefits. Two of those 3 are a married couple that founded the organization, and the husband is an officer. Now, the company is going to make employer contributions to the HSA. So, the one employee is going to get an amount based on her single coverage. The wife is getting a family plan contribution AND the husband is getting an individual amount. 

"This didn't pass the smell test for me -- doesn't this violate comparability rules? Or could the company allow employee pre-tax contributions through a cafeteria plan, and avoid the comparability rules? I read you can only differentiate contributions in one of three ways [1] Full-time vs. part-time. [2] HDHP coverage class [3] HSA-eligible vs. noneligible. 

"The husband makes ~$115k and the wife makes ~$72k. I know officers/owners of a company can receive different benefits than the employees, but does that work only when there are employee contributions offered/required through a cafeteria plan? If they offered family contributions + a single contribution to any current (none) or future married employees, would that be OK?"

"Participant asked for deferrals to be taken as Roth, but it was done as pre-tax. Started May 2023 through last week when they left. What is the remedy for that? In plan Roth rollover? The thing that gets me is it was the participant who was in charge of entering the deferrals into the payroll system. 403(b) plan, but that shouldn't matter, I think."

"Profit Sharing Plan has pooled investments. There are 2 real estate parcels - one valued at $1.4M and another at $750K. The parcels are valued each year by an appraiser. The remaining plan assets, $4.2M, are in a brokerage account. The owner died - his balance is $1.5M. There are 58 participants in this plan. I've advised the client for years that having 1/3 of total plan assets in real estate is an issue and they should consult an ERISA attorney. They haven't, and now here we are. 

"The beneficiary is his wife. The 2 kids of the deceased owner now own the company. Their first request was to allow the beneficiary to roll the real estate to an IRA and roll the remaining balance in cash. Because this is a pooled account, each participant owns 1/58 of the real estate. Allowing the beneficiary to roll the real estate to an IRA seems out of the question. 

"The new owners were talking to an investment banker friend who said he had a client with a similar situation. The employer sent a form to each participant asking for their permission to forgo their ownership in the asset and allow the beneficiary to take the real estate. This doesn't seem right. Does anyone have any experience with this? (The client contacted the ERISA attorney I referred them to. It might take awhile for the attorney to weigh in on this so I thought I'd put this out there to the TPAs in the trenches.) Thanks!"

"I have a safe-harbor matching 401k plan where the employee satisfied his one year of employment on 11/3/24. The adoption agreement defines eligibility as 1 year of service with semi-annual entry dates of 1/1 and 7/1. This would enter him on 1-1-25. This created confusion with the plan sponsor and, evidently, the payroll company because they deducted a 401k contribution from his December paycheck. I am thinking they need to refund the $170 and issue an amended W-2 for 2024. Is my understanding correct, and if so, does anyone have a better recommendation? Does anyone know what may happen in an IRS audit if they choose to leave it there and not amend the plan to permit it? The deposit was made in January 2025."

"I have an owner-only plan (no employees) that maxes their 401k & profit sharing contribution ever year. So $66,000 intended to be contributed for 2023, and $69,000 has been contributed for 2024. We are now discovering that the 2023 deposit of profit sharing has not been made (401k deferral was), and also discovering that the profit sharing deduction wasn't taken on the 2023 tax return. Is there any way to clean this up so the client gets the 2023 deduction, or is it too late?"