Art of the Qualified Plan Audit

The 2023 Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan includes some changes to previous filing requirements as published in the Federal Register ) and documented in the 2023 Form 5500 instructions. As discussed in our previous blogs “Learning How to Count Again” and “Counting What Counts, Counts the Auditors Out!,” one change was to … Continued

The Office of the Chief Accountant (OCA) in the Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) of the Department of Labor (DOL) has released a 2023 Audit Quality Study covering the quality of audits being performed by independent qualified public accountants (IQPAs).  This is the fourth study to be performed with prior studies being performed in 2015, … Continued

Not really a good option: The Online Calculator is convenient, and also inexpensive, so…use it for the HCEs! Practitioners tend to use the DOL’s online calculator for late deferral deposits, since EPCRS permits estimates, but to the extent one is being practical and making participants whole, the cheaper result of the online calculator should not … Continued

But It’s My Money! Business owners and Highly Compensated Employees (HCEs) are often shocked to hear that they cannot contribute the maximum 401(k) or 403(b) deferral ($23,000 and $22,500 for 2024 and 2023, respectively) because their plan did not pass the discrimination tests. Much to their surprise, through the Actual Deferral Percentage (ADP) and the … Continued

Nervous apprehension tends to overwhelm new 401(k) audit clients who don’t know how involved they will need to be in the document production for the audit. Often, they are hopeful that one or more of their service providers will “take care of everything” as they promised. The bottom line is that the extent of the … Continued

Death by a thousand cuts. That’s what initial 401(k) and 403(b) audit clients fear their first financial statement audit will feel like. Fear of the unknown leads the human mind to worst case scenarios. Could I fail the audit? Sure, anything is possible. Will I fail my first audit? Not likely. Even if the audit … Continued

Not Enough RMD Participants must take an Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from retirement plans and IRAs. 403(b) plans often have more than one account in the name of each participant. While each 401(k) plan must issue its own RMDs, an individual can take one RMD distribution for the entire amount computed using the balances in … Continued

In its quest to Set Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement, SECURE 2.0 enhanced the Long-Term Part-Time (LTPT) rules of Secure 1.0 by making them applicable to 403(b) plans. Since employees are more likely to contribute to an employer-sponsored retirement arrangement than an Individual Retirement Account, and more Americans are working part-time since the pandemic, … Continued

SECURE 2.0: Mandatory Automatic Enrollment Coupled with Corrective Contribution Relief Employees Plan to Make the Right Choice…Later When it comes to choosing to save for retirement, people tend to be short-sighted. Many eligible employees don’t choose to participate in their employer-sponsored retirement plans. Behavioral finance studies show that people tend to imagine themselves making the … Continued

Posted By: Saaib T. Uppal, CPA, QKA IRS Announces Increases on Benefits and Contributions Dollar Limitations for 2023 The IRS has announced cost-of-living adjustments that should be noted for retirement planning purposes. Below is a chart that outlines employee benefit plan limits for 2023: Plan Limits RETIREMENT & SOCIAL SECURITY 2023 Limit 2022 Limit 2021 Limit … Continued