Art of the Qualified Plan Audit

Keeping two sets of books often means that someone is hiding something from the taxing authorities.

Pre-tax contributions to a 401(k) or 403(b) plan are not taxed when made to the plan but are taxed when the participant receives a distribution of the contributions.

When it comes to IRS audits, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” as Benjamin Franklin so wisely put it.

As a plan sponsor, you may know that, generally, if your plan covers 100 employees or more, your plan is considered a large plan and requires audited financial statements to be attached to the 5500 filing.

We often ask the question, “How does our 401(k) plan stack up?”

Plan administrators probably view the management representation letter as a document they must sign so they likely do so without reading it closely.

Along with the presidential election on Tuesday, November 8, another election that participants should have on their mind is the deferral for their retirement plan.

On April 6, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule expanding the definition of investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and modifying the complex list of prohibited transaction exemptions as it relates to the expanded definition.

Posted by Maria T. Hurd, CPA Disclaimer: All blog posts are valid as of the date published. In a highly regulated industry with complicated rules that always have exceptions (except when the exception does not apply) it is inevitable that sooner or later a failure to follow the plan document will take place. Such operational … Continued

Our lives are filled with limits; speed limits, credit limits, time limits, and a number of different retirement plan limits.