"Is anyone seeing an uptick in IRS audits for the 2023 plan year?"

"I have a question to present as there is no clear answer in EPCRS. There was an asset sale in April (4/2/26) and the employees were hired/transferred to the newly formed company with new EIN of the buyer. I have finally received confirmation by legal counsel that the buyer did not agree to take over the sellers 401k plan after the sale. However, the newly formed company continued to contribute to the plan of the seller after the sale closed - deferrals and match. What is the correction here? Distribute deferrals to the employees as 1099 income for 2026, but what about the match? Normally under EPCRS excess amounts attributable to match would be forfeited but the match was funded by an ineligible employer since there was an asset sale. Following that line of correction, the match would be forfeited, the plan terminated by the seller, and then there will be forfeitures to deal with. So after any plan expenses, lets say that forfeitures remain. Do they get reallocated - Ineligible match contributed after the 4/2 asset sale by an ineligible employer gets reallocated to the participants? Or, could this be viewed as a mistake of fact and return the match to the buyer?"